Second Origin
by Shay Itten
Summary: Lucy's just gotten the hang of her new powers when the 13 Blades dash the Fairies' hope of winning the Grand Magic Games. Who are these people? And what exactly do they want to achieve? Rated T for some language. Laxus X Lucy X Rogue (ω)
1. Prologue

**SUMMARY: They're back from Tenrou, and they've never been… well, weaker. But when Ultear unlocks their Second Origin, things get a bit out of hand with someone considered to be weaker than the rest. How will the rest cope up with this? How will she?**

* * *

**So I wanted to do my own little Lucy gets stronger clichéd stories so I did this!  
****Enjoy!**

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**PROLOGUE.**

The disappearance of the guild's most prestigious and strongest members was the turning point in the life of the Fairy Tail guild. The prominent members of the guild had gone out on the S-Class trials to Fairy Tail's sacred ground, Tenrou Island, but had not returned.

Now, a child stood on the port of the town Hargeon, waiting for their arrival and expecting their return.

Romeo Conbolt had admired many people in his life – his father, Erza Scarlet (the strongest female of Fairy Tail), Lucy Heartfilia – but he had never admired a person as he had Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer. The boy was completely smitten by Natsu – professionally, of course. So much so, that he had in fact tried to replicate his dressing style to match that of Natsu. He's had to adjust some things, of course.

Finding a vest and fluffy pants like Natsu's had been relatively easy, but Natsu's most prized possession and most distinct physical feature had always been his white, scaly scarf which had been given to him by the fire dragon, Igneel. Romeo had roamed around all over Fiore, but had never found one that could hold a candle to Natsu's. He's finally settled for a worn-out orange-ish muffler that he had worn when he had been travelling. After all, he needed some originality.

Romeo's guild emblem had been placed over his left bicep, in flame red. This was not by choice, but by fate. Guild emblems were placed on one's body upon joining the guild of their choice, but the color of the emblem was not one's choice. The color related most to one's personality, their thoughts and even though in a little manner, their outward appearance. Who knew, maybe the stamp had seen too much of Natsu in Romeo, because this was the exact same color of Natsu's stamp.

The location had been chosen by Romeo though, because (obviously) this had been the location of Natsu's stamp as well.

At first, with his new look, nobody in the guild could stand looking at Romeo, because he looked too much like Natsu. But as the guild soon found out, he was a far cry from Natsu's ever cheerful personality.

Now, looking out to the sea, Romeo felt something. It didn't matter anymore, because he had always felt something while looking out to those clear blue waters.

Romeo had deliberately chosen the Hargeon job (it wasn't as if he'd had a lot of options) just so he could look out to sea and try to imagine what had happened to Fairy Tail's strongest members. Had it been an earthquake that led to the disappearance of the Tenrou Island, or had it been a magical force? Rescue team had always described a sense of leftover Magic Energy, as if something extremely powerful had just left. But that was to be expected was it not? After all, one of the most magically powerful lands had just gone under the sea.

So when his father, the acting Guild Master, had strode up to him at the port (how had Romeo been found so easily? He hadn't filled in the job he'd taken) and said something about Blue Pegasus' warship Christina finding something at the Previous mission it had gone to, Romeo hadn't gotten his hopes up. How many of these false alarms had he payed heed to in the previous seven years? Tenrou Island wasn't just going to reappear out of nowhere land.

His father and some of Fairy Tail's more powerful members had gone out to sea the following day, hoping to find Tenrou, or what remained of it anyways.

Romeo Conbolt knew that they weren't going to find anything.

Imagine his surprise when Natsu Dragneel had thrown open the doors to the guild they all loved and said "We're back!" as if they had gone on a vacation.

Imagine his relief when the rest of the missing member had followed Natsu inside and greeted them all cheerful.

Imagine his smile, the first one he'd shown in seven years.

Imagine his happiness as his idol had walked up to him and said "You grown so big, Romeo."

Imagine his giddiness as they'd partied all night long, not worried about Sabertooth, Twilight Ogre, and the Grand Magic Games for the first time in, what seemed to him, forever.

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**How is it guys? I'm pretty happy with the prologue. Its kinda short, but I promise every chapter's gonna be at least 2000 words long.  
****I'm also going to make Lucy pretty strong in this story, because… well I can.  
****I don't own Fairy Tail, ok?  
****DON'T FORGET TO FUCKING REVIEW OR I'LL TORTURE YOU! You don't even want to know how. *evil smirk*  
****Another thing – I'll probably post the next chapter tomorrow or maybe the day after tomorrow. I'm already done with it, just need to sort out a few details.  
Another thing after another thing - please tell me what you'd like the pairing to be. Don't be afraid to crack it up, because I'm not gonna accept anything normal. No NaLu or GraLu or LoLu. Something cracked up. Please.  
****Enjoy your day folks, and review.**


	2. Chapter 1

**SUMMARY: They're back from Tenrou, and they've never been… well, weaker. But when Ultear unlocks their Second Origin, things get a bit out of hand with someone considered to be weaker than the rest. How will the rest cope up with this? How will she?**

* * *

**Hey dudes! I'm back! Did you miss me?  
So this is the first real chapter of the story. Also the suggestions I've gotten for the pairings are as follows – LaLu, FreLu, ZerCy, StiCy, LyLu etc. etc.  
Sorry, but I can't do ZerCy because he's gonna be the villain. But I have another story planned and currently in editing, which is ZerCy. I'm gonna post it soon.  
I'm leaning towards LaLu, maybe RoLu or StiCy? I don't know.  
For now, forward!**

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**CHAPTER 1**

Lucy Heartfilia had never been better, though that wasn't much to say.

Their return from Tenrou had shocked the members of Fairy Tail and the other guilds alike. Every bit of news, gossip and chat now centered around the reappearance of the missing mages of the former best guild in Fiore.

Lucy had been shocked to hear that Fairy Tail was now weakest of the weak. Sure, many of its members had disappeared, but the remaining members weren't easy to take out either. Macao, Wakaba, Laki, everyone had their own strengths, and Lucy couldn't really imagine a guild master losing to someone, because that would just be pitiful.

The gossip about Sabertooth had caught Lucy's attention. The now number 1 and the favorites for winning the Grand Magic Games (a new ritual which, according to Lucy, was quite the idea,) were, according to Fairy Tail, a group of the most ruthless, power-hungry people ever seen. They were obsessed with being the most powerful, not paying attention to the other aspects of life, like, well, _humanity_. The first time Lucy had heard about them, she'd been disgusted by the fact that they were the kind to die rather than lose.

She'd always hated people after seeing their appalling attitude, but Lucy hated this guild before ever meeting them.

After returning, their day in the guild had passed as it always had, with the exception of the guild being even rowdier than usual. It wasn't everyday that people came back from the dead. (Not really, but they could gloss over the details.) So when she'd gone back to her apartment, she was exteremely tired and hungry, and longed for nothing but a hot bath, dinner, and a good evening + night's (maybe even morning?) sleep.

She hadn't anticipated that her rent was due.

She had practically been dead, for Mavis' sake! (but not really, you see.) Couldn't the landlady give her some comfort?

Selfish old fucking hag.

Guess where Lucy slept that night. The guild hall – the dirty, messy guild hall where the tables and chairs and floors were covered in beer and Natsu's snores filled the room. It had been an all time low for her, and she had been a runaway, so she had plenty of lows in terms of sleeping areas.

* * *

Meanwhile, Erza Scarlet was talking to Alzack and Bisca about the mysterious breaking out of Jellal Fernandes from prison. She was kind of confused about her feelings towards the old enemy, so she naturally was puzzled as to this latest development.

Jellal had been her first love. There was no doubting that. Stuck in the tower of heaven, he had been Erza's only salvation. As much as she had loved the others, the love Sho and Miliana and Wally and Simon received from her could not even compare to her love for Jellal.

But then, like everything in her life, Jellal had gone to the _other side_, as she now liked to call it. His attitude had completely changed, going from caring one second to evil mastermind the other. Erza had been thrown of the island and the ships had been burnt, leading the others to believe that Erza had gone and burnt the ships, leaving the others to strive for themselves.

But even after all this had happened, even after he'd turned everyone against her, even after that big fight which killed Simon and almost killed her too, she'd never hated him. Maybe she was partial; maybe she was just too much in love. She didn't care. She wanted to hate him, but she'd never been able to. Erza had then talked to someone who, she was sure, knew a lot more about boys than her.

Lucy.

The first time she'd told Lucy, Lucy had said that what Erza was feeling had been perfectly natural. Lucy had felt it too, loving someone without wanting to. Lucy's father hadn't exactly been the best of parents, and she had always felt that seething hatred towards him. But while Erza could easily hate him, Lucy obviously had a hard time.

Lucy had said that loving someone wasn't something that you could help. Once you start to love someone, it is very hard to stop loving them.

Erza had listened to her (obviously. Don't tell anyone, but secretly she was scared of Lucy's whip and her kick) and gone on life loving a fugitive. Not that she told anyone, because she may have accepted it, it wasn't really a fact she was going to publicize.

* * *

Lucy's father was dead.

She'd just found out about this development. She had gone to Acalypha town, to her father's merchant guild for some financial aid (hypocrisy detected). Upon reaching her destination, she found out that her father was floating in heaven with little angel wings on his back.

Somehow, she hadn't cried.

Was it a sign of her hatred for her father? Lucy had always had a tenuous relationship with Jude, but deep down, she had always loved him. Or so she thought.

With Natsu and Happy following her all the way to her father's grave, she had asked Natsu if her lack of tears symbolized her hatred for Jude Heartfilia. She already knew what he'd say – "Obviously not, Luce. He almost destroyed our guild, Luce, but that doesn't mean you hate him. Your relationship may be tense, Luce, but in your heart, you will always love him." Easy for him to say. _His_ dad was the best.

Natsu's answer had been along the lines Lucy had imagined.

When Lucy got back to Magnolia, she sat by the fountains and moped. Moped about her useless father who was always unavailable and would never be available again. Moped about his useless daughter who couldn't even bring herself to cry upon her father's death. Moped about her lost apartment which was so pretty and so damn awesome. But most of all, she moped about the loss of both her parents.

When she raised her head, Miss Selfish Landlady was standing in front of her. She was about to ask what she was doing there when Landlady dragged her into her old apartment. There, she found a stack of gifts and a bundle of leeters, all addressed to her and all given by Jude. He had also paid the leftover rent.

He cared

_He cared._

That was when Lucy finally cried.

* * *

Two men had been speaking of Gajeel and Natsu.

"You were his apprentice, weren't you, Rogue?" said the lighter part of the duo.

"Do not live in the past, Sting. Live in the present, and think about your future." said the darker counterpart, Rogue.

Together, they were the twin dragons of Sabertooth.

* * *

Natsu was fighting Max Alors behind the guild hall.

At first, he had been shocked to see the increase in Max's power and pleased to know that the current members of the Fairy Tail guild weren't extremely weak. His second reaction, obviously, had been that of fear.

How had he suddenly become so weak? Max wasn't even close to being near S-Class. At least Natsu had been selected in the trials. But fighting Max had, so far, been nothing more than a pain in the ass. A _huge_ pain in the ass. Seven years ago, he could've easily defeated someone like Max. Even Lucy would've had no problem taking him out. But now, Natsu had to go into Lightning Flame Dragon Mode to defeat this guy. And after one attack, he was absolutely wiped out.

Natsu Dragneel did _not_ like this sudden change.

"We have to increase our magic energy," Lucy said from behind him. She was sitting on a large rock, watching the battle along with Gray, Happy, Wendy and Carla.

"Yeah," said Natsu, because, frankly, that was all he could manage.

"Let's go to the doctor chick!" said Gray.

Lucy looked confused. "Who?"

"That pink haired old chick!"

Natsu wracked his brain for someone who fit this description. "That Moonyusicha person?"

"Oh, Porlyusica," said Lucy, "I think she could amplify our magic energy."

"Then what are we waiting for!" shouted Natsu, fist-pumping.

* * *

Wendy was tearing up. They had gone to Porlyusica's place (in the forest. Who lives in a forest?) and tried to ask her about Magic Amplification Spells, but all they had gotten was a good beating.

But that wasn't the reason behind Wendy's tears. Porlyusica's voice, her scent, her way of talking had all been exactly similar to the one who had raised Wendy; Grandeeney, the Sky Dragon.

"I forgot she hates humans…" said Lucy, out of breath from all that running. "Whose idea was it anyway to go to her?"

Everyone pointed to Gray.

"Ah well…" he said, paling, afraid of Lucy and her whip.

"There you are!" panted Porlyusica, appearing behind Wendy with a broom in one hand and some papers in the other. "I've been trying to find you."

Wendy looked up at her hesitantly, as if she was afraid of facing the old hag. Wendy knew that Porlyusica was related somehow to Grandeeney, but was afraid of asking for two reasons – 1) Porlyusica was scary, and 2) Wendy wasn't sure if she even wanted to know what happened to Grandeeney, because what if it wasn't all good news? She wouldn't be able to handle it.

But when Porlyusica placed a hand under her chin and smiled, Wendy thought that Grandeeney had somehow turned human.

"You are the daughter of Grandeeney, no? The sky maiden?" Porlyusica asked, her voice sweet and syrupy.

Wendy hesitantly nodded.

"My name is Porlyusica. I am the Edolas version of Grandeeney."

Suddenly, all her fear vanished and was replaced by excitement. "Do you know where she is?"

Porlyusica's face fell. "Unfortunately, no, my child. But she did tell me to give you these," she said, handing Wendy the papers, "These are the ways to learn your Secret Arts – Milky way and Shattering Light: Sky Drill. Learn them, and you will become much more powerful."

Wendy nodded her head vigorously, trying not to let her disappointment show on her face.

"I must take my leave now Wendy. I will see you soon." Porlyusica said the will with complete certainty, as if she was sure.

Well, atleast if she didn't get Grandeeney, she would make do with her Edolas counterpart.

After the departure of Porlyusica, Wendy turned around to face her teammates looking at her with a look of complete shock on their faces.

She giggled.

* * *

"We have to train." said Erza decisively.

Team Natsu was having a group meeting in Lucy's apartment. Gray and Natsu were sitting on her bed, Happy was perched on Erza's shoulder, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and Lucy was sitting at her desk. As usual.

"I know, Erza. We can't go into the Grand Magic Games like this! We have to get stronger!" said Lucy, trying to encourage the rest.

"Where should we go?"

Erza got that evil glint in her eyes. "Oh, don't worry. I know the perfect place."

* * *

**This concludes the first chapter. Love it? Hate it? Review!  
And I hope you don't mind if I change some of the battle pairings, do you? Also, I may change some of the events too!  
Cheerio!  
AND REVIEW, BITCHES, OR YOU'RE DEAD.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Me back! The hotness has returned to this fictional too strong Lucy world!  
Soo.. I finally reached 500 views! Freaking yay… Don't really care. I just care about the reviews. If there's no ****_re- _****before views, IDC.  
Let's go. I have something important to tell y'all after this chapter.**

* * *

Lucy sat in the midst of the plants, with her hands in an _Om_ position and her eyes closed.

"Take a deep breath. Relax. Concentrate." came the voice of one of her spirits, Capricorn, the goat man. Capricorn was one the more-trusted ones, but he wasn't as close to her as some of the rest. He had apparently been extremely close to Layla though, considering himself to be her most trusted spirit (Though Aquarius had a few words to say about _that_). To Lucy, Capricorn was as bossy as they came, though he was the one spirit whose attitude and personality were normal, but Lucy couldn't be the judge of that. She had long forgotten the meaning of normal.

Back in the present, Lucy could not focus. Natsu and the others were playing and frolicking in the water, whereas she had to train. Talk about unfair. It was her fault though. She was weaker than the rest of them – that wasn't _entirely _her fault, she told herself – her magic just was like that. She'd trained for so many years, and even then she could open only one zodiac. Joining Fairy Tail had certainly been a boon, since she could now open two, but whatever. Natsu was still stronger.

Fuck it all to hell, she thought. Even if she was weak, she'd gotten the best friends anyone could ever ask for. They would protect her if she couldn't fight any longer.

Capricorn was a slave driver though. Meditate, meditate, meditate. Boring, boring, boring.

"Have you ever heard of the One Magic, Capricorn?" she said. Lucy had no idea how that suddenly popped into her head, but anything to save her from this boring – ness.

"Yes, princess. It is considered to be the root of all magic. Nothing but purity." he said, making her go back to the time when she had found out about it.

"I think its love," said Lucy suddenly, shocking Capricorn, "I mean, it's gotta be it, right?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Think about it. I'm sure you'll start believing so yourself."

Capricorn's face suddenly went into thinking mode. _Yes! She gave him the distraction needed to sneak away .Now, all that was needed was tip toes and – _

"Where do you think _you're _going?" Capricorn looked mutinous.

"Um, to drink water?" was the reply she could come up with, and Lucy immediately cringed at the lameness of it.

"Sit down. We still have a lot to do."

Tears streaming down her face, Lucy obeyed.

* * *

_A day in the Celestial World is equal to three months in the normal world. _

Would it have killed Virgo to say that _before_ they went to The Celestial World and wasted all their training time on eating and partying and having fun? Now, Team Natsu was sitting behind the hotel, backs against the wall, moping and crying with all their heart. All Erza had wanted was one day of fun. This wasn't what she had bargained for.

Now she would have to be the Slave - Driver Erza for the five remaining days.

What could they even accomplish in five days? It wasn't like they could just train a lot and still get stronger. Five days was lesser by far than seven years. Everyone else at the Sabertooth guild would be much stronger than the rest of them. They couldn't afford to lose again. Last fucking place with 3 S-Class members would be pathetic.

They couldn't have that now, could they?

Erza was going to work the rest so hard that the skin was going to fall off their bones.

She smirked. Evilly.

They were going to wish they had never been born.

* * *

Gray wanted to kiss that bird.

The bird that had saved them all.

Currently, the tiny bird that wouldn't have looked out of place in Cinderella was leading them into the forest, where whoever had called them was waiting to 1) Pounce on them and eat their flesh or 2) Help them train. Personally, Gray wanted the second option.

Natsu looked like he wanted the first one.

_Please, oh infinite universe, grant us the power to get more power – does that make sense? – and to get rid of this idiot known as Natsu Dragneel._

Three robe clad figures appeared in front of them.

"EEK!" someone screamed. It didn't take a genius to know that it was Lucy.

Honestly, Gray didn't blame her. The figures were clad in dark blue robes and, well, nothing else was visible. But they had a distinct aura of danger around them, like a black veil surrounding the head of a widow or a mushroom cloud of smoke. Their getup seemed to say one thing and one thing only. **DO NOT COME HERE. DANGER ZONE. DANGER ZONE.**

Oh, well. It wasn't as if they hadn't faced their share of danger zones.

When the hoods were drawn back, he had the surprise of his life. It was Ultear, Jellal, and Meredy. Unexpected, since he knew that the three of them were not particularly close – Ultear and Meredy were, but Jellal? Ultear had practically used him like a firecracker – use, but if it does not blow up, throw away. Jellal was the last person Gray expected to hang out with Ultear. He must be exceptionally forgiving, but Gray hadn't completely forgiven him yet. It would be a long time before he got over the fact that Jellal had nearly killed them all.

"Where are Erza and Jellal?" asked Lucy.

"Ah, who knows?" said Ultear with a devil grin, "Maybe they went back to the hotel…"

"Stop right there! My ears need not hear anymore." Lucy screamed, and in his mind Gray thanked her with all his heart. The last thing he needed was to think about Jellal fuckin-

No. No. No. Don't.

Gray was _not_ going to think about these gross things.

* * *

To say that Jellal Fernandes was happy would be an understatement.

Erza was back!

He could hardly contain it. His heart would soon burst out in joy.

_But _he could not show it. Obviously.

Now that Jellal had seen her face, he could see the minor differences in her appearance – the lack of the usual armor clinging to her body, the sideswept bangs that usually didn't fall so far down her face. Erza was dressed in a simple white frilly top and a blue skirt. She looked nice, but she looked better in her armor.

He thought that Erza looked better in her armor. Jellal didn't think that anyone else thought that, but whatever.

Her longer bangs, however, made her look hotter.

"Why are you staring at me?"

"Wha - What?" said Jellal, tearing his eyes away from her.

"You look like you want to eat me."

"Well, you _have_ been gone a long time."

"You turned into a cannibal in the time I was gone?"

"No! Seriously, use your brain."

"Relax, Jellal. It was a joke. Gosh…"

They stared at each other. Jellal didn't mind.

"Why did you bring me here?" Erza said, breaking the stare fest.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"Me."

"You're a conceited one."

"Shut up and listen."

"Listening."

"You might be wondering what I'm doing with Ultear and Meredy," said Jellal, looking out for some sign of jealousy (he was travelling with two hot girls and she wasn't jealous? Weird.) , "Well, we've formed a guild. Crime Sorciére."

"May I ask why?"

He was aghast at her sudden change of behavior. Friendly to formal in 3 seconds? Wow.

"To atone for our crimes."

Jellal heard her sigh.

"You've don-"

"Please don't say anything. I _have _done wrong and so have they. If we want to atone for our sins, it's not really up to you."

Mood change. The atmosphere was thick with tension.

His past flashed before his eyes – the building of the tower of heaven with had taken away the lives of so many people, the activation of Nirvana, even if it was unconsciously, that had threatened to destroy Earthland. These were high on the sin list, and he deserved to be punished for them. So he'd taken the road and taken out every dark guild that had come in his way. Ultear and Meredy had been the ones to break him out of prison, and together they had formed Crime Sorciére, with the sole mission of atoning for their sins.

Erza grabbed his collar and pushed him, jerking him back to reality.

She used too much strength, however, and they toppled to the ground.

They were kinda close.

Too close.

Again, Jellal didn't mind.

They moved closer.

Closer.

Closer.

_Kiss her,_ said his heart_, this may be your last chance._

_Don't, _his brain said_, you don't deserve her._

Well, that was true. Erza was nothing but goodness, and Jellal's heart and past were so black that all these years of dark guild hunting couldn't even turn them gray.

He pulled away.

"I can't do this," he said, "I have a fiancée."

_Oh, the lameness. You couldn't find a better lie? _His brain said.

He said a mental shut the fuck up.

"Oh. I'm sorry." The fakeness of the apology was clear in her voice.

"Me too." The fakeness was clear in this case too, because Jellal had really wanted to kiss Erza (cue anime tears.)

Jellal stared at her some more. She didn't even look emabarassed.

She obviously knew that he was lying.

But if she didn't say so, then all was well.

After all, where would he get a fiancée to show Erza?

* * *

"You know that your body has magic energy inside it. When you use all of it up, it goes back in from the environment, and fills up again in time." said Ultear, continuing her lecture on whatever.

Natsu was on the verge of sleep. If she didn't say anything interesting soon, he was going to pass out.

"But what you didn't know was that your body has a _second_ vessel of magic energy." she said, with an immensely smug look on her face.

Lucy's surprise was evident on her face. "What? Really? I've never read anything about this…"

"Yeah, really. And _I'm _gonna unlock this in all of you." Ultear said, another self-righteous look appearing on her face.

"You can do that?" asked Gray incredulously.

Ultear snapped her fingers, as if she was bored. "Of course, idiot," she said, and then showed of a toothy grin that sent shivers down Natsu's spine (and he was so fearless and ferocious, he thought. How scary was this chick?) , "Now. Who's first?"

Apparently, Natsu hadn't learnt anything from that predatory look, because he said "Meeee!"

* * *

"Do I really have to do this?" asked Lucy, crying and trying to run from Erza's grasp. Natsu and Gray were crying out so loud in pain… Lucy's desire to live trumped her craving to get stronger. After all, she had soft and supple skin. Who knew what all this pain could do to her?

"Yes." Erza was murderous.

Erza's terrifying look still wasn't enough to scare Lucy into submission.

Now Jellal looked vicious too (after all, Lucy had infuriated his _guurrllfriend) _although he didn't say anything. But two scary looks from two scary people trumped Lucy's desire to live as her chances of living through the pain were probably higher than those of being attacked by these two. She shuddered at the mere thought.

She said a little mental prayer and stepped towards Ultear.

* * *

Lucy had passed out.

They were all sitting in the carriage, heading back to Magnolia. Natsu and Gray were still screaming, but Lucy had passed out from the pain. This didn't really come as a surprise to Erza, since Lucy was kind of fragile, although Erza would never say this to her face, since when she was angry, Lucy could be kinda scary.

The ride had been bumpy and rough as usual, (Natsu had to tolerate all that pain _and _motion sickness? Poor boy.) but when they got off at the guild hall, Natsu and Gray's pain had almost completely subsided, though Lucy still hadn't woken up. Erza was getting kind of scared. What if something had gone wrong when Ultear was working on her? Erza would never forgive herself if something happened to Lucy. After all, she was the one who had convinced (yeah, right,) Lucy to go through with it.

It was decided that Natsu would carry Lucy.

"He loooves her." chanted Happy.

Erza wasn't too worried. Lucy was a newcomer to the guild and had still been through so much. A teensy little spell wouldn't hurt her.

"WE'RE BACK!" Natsu shouted.

"Tone it down a bit, will you?" said Gray condescendingly.

Sensing another one of their fights coming on, Erza sent a glare their way and went to sit near Master.

"Why's Lucy passed out?" he asked. Erza would have to tell Master what happened to let him know what had happened to Lucy. She knew that Master wouldn't like it, so she said 'Brace yourself.' before telling him the story of their journey.

Master was upset, though not for the reason she had expected him to be.

"You fools! You unlocked Lucy's Second Origin!? Are you fucking crazy?" Master was practically spitting now. The use of the word _fuck_ had been enough to tell them all that he wasn't just upset, he was enraged.

Had they done something wrong? Lucy hadn't really hesitated (okay, she had, but out of fear of pain. This seemed to be different.)

"Yeah, we actually did. What, is something wrong, Gramps?" said Gray, trying to act nonchalant and failing miserably. Erza could practically see the buckets of sweat falling off his boxer-clad body – when had he removed his clothes? – and could feel the same falling down her body too. Why was Master so angry?

"Fools! Do you even know anything about Lucy's magic?" he screamed.

"Yeah, we do. She gets her keys, chants something, and a celestial spirit appears. That's it, right?" Natsu said stupidly.

"People concerned in this matter, come into my office. This includes Lucy's friends, close acquaintances, anyone worried about her."

And with this, he left dramatically with a swishy cape and everything.

* * *

Levy was worried sick.

The moment Team Natsu had strode into the hall with Lucy's unconscious body, she knew that something was wrong. But they didn't look really concerned, so she tried to get it out of her mind. But when Master had started screaming about Lucy 15 minutes later, she knew that something was seriously wrong.

So she followed Team Natsu into Master's office. (Jet and Droy had started to follow her, but she'd told them to stay there. Gajeel had gone in himself. He was so nice.) But she never would've expected Master to say what he had.

"No talking, any of you." Master said, staring pointedly at Gray and Natsu, who were fighting – about whose fault it was that Lucy was unconscious, by the way – and continued, "You all think you know all there is to know about Celestial Magic. But calling on spirits is just the rawest, most basic form of this magic."

Everyone had a _WHAT? _look on their face.

Master continued his lecture, "Celestial refers to the universe or space. It is the single biggest thing that exists. Therefore, this magic also has a lot of different forms. All things are present inside the universe, so everything is present _inside_ Lucy, so as to speak. Not literally, Natsu," he said, seeing the look on Natsu's face, "What I'm saying is that Lucy is pretty much capable of using any element to her advantage to some degree, though practicing a single type of magic based on an element always makes it stronger."

"So what you're saying is that Lucy can use any kind of magic, but its gonna be weaker than if any mage specialized in the element uses it?" said Mirajane with a smile/an incredulous look on her face.

"No, Mira, you're missing the point. Lucy can use almost all of the elements in her magic, but these will present themselves to her in the form of huge spells, which will probably cause a lot of damage. But each of the elements will take the form of a spell based on planets and stars, and she will not have any control other than the spells on these elements. Your Transformation Magic, therefore, is completely out of Lucy's skill set, other than if she chooses to learn it. Which is doubtful."

"Doubtful? Why?" came Laxus' voice from near the wall. What was he doing here? Levy didn't know about any kind of friendship between Laxus and Lucy.

"The amount of Magic Energy inside a Celestial Mage is comparatively greater than the Energy inside other mages. If any one of you tries to open one of the golden gates of zodiac, you won't be able to. Maybe Erza can open one, since her magic can be compared to Lucy's to some degree," he said, looking at Erza, "but any of you can forget about opening two of them at once. Lucy's magic energy is higher, but because of her magic being what it is, she is considered weaker than some of you."

"So she's stronger than me? Wow, I can't wait to fight her now." said Natsu, grinning and grabbing his forearm.

Everyone looked at him exasperatedly.

"Let me finish, Natsu." Master said, glaring at Natsu, "As I was saying, her level of Magic Energy is higher than the rest of the mages. No one can simply learn Celestial Magic – Celestial Mages are born, not made. Lucy's magic probably stems from her mother's side of the family. But how much she must have had to train to open a second gate, I can't imagine…" he said, trailing off at the end.

They waited.

Waited.

Waited.

"Master?" Levy said delicately.

"Oh yeah, where was I?" Master said, snapping out of his reverie.

"Lucy's amount of – "

"Magic energy, yes. So, as I was saying, it's higher than yours. Hence, the Second Origin of Celestial Mages opens up little by little, so as to not flood the body with all the magic at once. So when you people got it all released at once, amazing amounts of magic energy flooded into Lucy's body. Don't worry, she'll be alright," glancing at the worried faces around the room, "but she'll be unconscious for a while. And when she wakes up, she'll be stronger than atleast Gray, maybe even Natsu."

Both of them looked worried.

"And this is just the basic stage. When she masters all her Magic Energy, she is going to be one of the strongest of Fairy Tail."

* * *

**I'm ending it here, because this is like a thousand words longer than the previous chapter.  
Anyways, I wanted to say that I'm asking you all to tell me the pairing you'd like – LaLu, RoLu or StiCy. So far, I have one Lalu, one StiCy and two RoLus. Write it in the reviews, PM me, whatever. Do it.  
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.  
Please.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! Me back! Did you miss me?  
So StiCy is off the list because no one voted for it. Is StiCy really ****_that_**** unpopular? I thought that people must like it. Because if they get together, they would be like the most attractive couple in any anime/manga ever, because, well, just look at 'em.  
But they're off the list, so no voting for them. LaLu currently has more votes than RoLu, but you guys can turn it around.  
ONLY VOTE FOR ROLU AND LALU. NO OTHER COUPLE IS ALLOWED.  
The story continues as follows.**

* * *

Lucy's head was literally throbbing. It felt like she had just been stampeded by a thousand dragons wearing Erza's armor. It hurt. A lot.

Lucy was lying in the infirmary of the Fairy Tail guild hall. Golden light was streaming in the window, so bright that she had immediately closed her eyes after opening them for a nanosecond. But her sense of touch was enough to know that her bed was mostly taken up by her sleeping friends – Natsu, Happy, Erza and Gray were all on her bed, and it was as cramped as hell. Natsu was practically on top of her, Gray's head rested on her stomach, Erza was sitting up while sleeping, her head resting on the headboard, and Happy, as, usual, had burrowed into her boobs. (Did that cat have no shame?)

This was the first time she was happy to find her friends in her bed. It was strangely comforting to know that they cared enough about her to burrow into her infirmary bed, even though it was small.

This reassurance was the last feeling she had before a sharp pain seared through her and she was swept away by the waves of unconsciousness again. **(A/N: Poetic, don't you think so?)**

* * *

Lisanna was anxious, though that didn't really mean anything. Everyone loved golden, glowing, happy Lucy. Anxiety was in the airwaves in the guild hall.

Lisanna hadn't always liked Lucy so. When she'd seen her for the first time in Edolas, the first thought she had was _Replacement. _It wasn't very nice, Lisanna knew, so she had never told anyone her disgusting thought. But after she had come back and all the other shit, Lisanna had made sure that she got to know Lucy, because she was such a loved person.

After chatting and playing games and doing some nonsensical things, Lisanna got to know that Lucy wasn't universally loved just for her looks. Her attitude, her charm, and her sarcastic comments had made Lisanna's stomach hurt from laughing so much. All of her not-so-nice comments had flown out the window that moment. Falling in love with Lucy was as easy as breathing.

There was the fact that Natsu, who Lisanna had a crush on, seemed to be extremely close to Lucy. Emphasis on extremely. He slept on her bed, for God's sake! This was a fact that Lisanna just couldn't get over and a bit of her bitterness still remained, though Lisanna made sure it was never seen by anyone, because even she was sickened by it.

Jealousy, as it was said, was an ugly emotion.

But that didn't stop her from being worried about Lucy. Petty romantic jealousy and a desire for someone to die were very different things.

* * *

"Have you heard?"

"They're really worried."

"She might die."

Rumors were spreading all over Magnolia, and because of all the hype surrounding the return of the Fairies, the rumors about Lucy spread all over Fiore when she didn't wake up for two days straight.

Naturally, Sting and Rogue were very interested in this new development.

"Is she really so important? I mean, she looks kinda weak," Sting said, looking closely at Rogue's face for any emotion, "Don't get me wrong, her hotness is uncomparable, but her magic - "

"Would you stop talking?" Rogue snapped, tiring of his partner's weird excitement.

"Fro thinks so, too!" said Frosch cheerily.

"Don't insult Sting-kun!" Lector said, gearing up for a fight.

"Don't underestimate Lucy Heartfilia, Sting," said Rogue, not quite ready to see his innocent little Exceed fight, "She's defeated people far stronger than you."

"Like?"

"Angel of Oracion Seis. She helped in defeating Hades, the master of Grimoire Heart. Hi -"

"I get it! You're in love with her, aren't you?" Sting said, waggling his eyebrows.

"You may think that _that_ looks hot, but it looks like there are two caterpillars on your forehead."

"I noticed that you didn't answer my question, Rogue."

"No, I am not in love with her Sting. But I do admire her, and her intelligence is –" said Rogue, a dreamy, faraway look appearing on his face. Sensing an _admiration rant_, (nice lingo, right? Sting had thought of it himself,) coming on, Sting stopped him before he gained any momentum.

"Stop. If you won't listen to my admiration rants about Natsu, I won't listen to your rants about Lucy _or_ Gajeel." he said, scrunching up his face.

"You look like you're constipated. Stop doing that or I'll puke."

"Fro thinks so, too!"

"Why you little…"

* * *

The Fairy Tail guild was on its way to Crocus, the capital of Fiore, for the Grand Magic Games. The train compartment they had a little cramped, but they could manage it. The reason for this cramping was obviously Lucy, who was spread out luxuriously while the others squeezed themselves into available spaces.

But now that she was awaking, she started to realize that 1) They were in a vehicle and 2) There were so many people around her that her non-existent claustrophobia was acting up.

"What the fuck? Get off me." she said, shoving people out of her way. She couldn't even get up, for fuck's sakes.

"Lucy?"

"Are you alright?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Yes, Erza, I am Lucy, and no, my head is throbbing, so shut the hell up Natsu, and I feel angry, so back off, Gray." Lucy replied, answering all of their queries at once. She was not in the mood for chatter, and wanted the rowdy compartment to shut their fucking traps.

Everyone backed off. And started staring at her like they had never seen her before.

"What? Is there something on my face?" asked Lucy angrily.

Everyone shook their heads rapidly. (except Erza, but Lucy had figured that Erza wouldn't really be scared.) What was up with all of them anyway? It wasn't like anything was out of the ordinary, and her good looks had never acquired their stares before.

Someone pushed their way through the throngs of people surrounding the now sitting Lucy, and stopped in front of her. Master Makarov was looking at her face, studying it to see if anything was wrong. It was pissing Lucy off.

"Stop staring at me!" she said, creeped out.

The guild payed no heed and continued their creep fest.

"Stop motherfucking staring or I'll break your damn necks!"

Natsu started walking up to her – he didn't stop staring – and placed a hand on her forehead, searching for her temperature. Lucy felt quite fine, and knew that she didn't have a fever. Sensing this, Natsu's hand crept behind her neck and he brought it down forcefully. She felt a sharp pain spark up her neck before Lucy passed out again.

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with her?"

"What have you guys done?"

"Why is she so – "

"QUIET!" Master Makarov screamed at the top of his lungs.

Everyone shut up. This was what Erza loved the most about her guild. Everyone was rowdy, sure, but they knew when they had to be disciplined.

"It seems that the drastic increase in magic power has led to a change in Lucy's personality, brats." Master said, looking at all of them kind of sadly.

"What do you mean Master? Why is Lucy so – Laxus-y?" Natsu screamed. Erza could understand the look on his face. He wanted his best friend back the way she was, not like some badass hardcore chick. If there was one person who would like this development, it was Laxus. He already thought that she was hot, and all this badassness would only make her hotter in his eyes.

BDSM weirdo.

"I want you to forget all you know about Lucy. Her body is trying to cope up with the sudden magic increase. It's either this or her laying sick in bed – which we can't have, because all of us want that reward," he said, dollars appearing in his eyes, "Let her be so for a while. After a while, I think, when she gets used to her power, she'll be back to normal."

Erza wanted her to be back to normal now. She knew it was childish, but her best friend suddenly changing into some kind of gang chick was not something she wanted. Lucy almost never swore, not at anyone except Natsu. She was always dressed in girly clothes, and she was a girl's girl. Even if she got stronger, Lucy would never want to change herself.

Now her power was different, and her attitude was different. It was like she was someone unknown to them.

* * *

"I need to train." had been the first words out of Lucy's mouth when they had arrived in Fiore. The ones following them had been, "And you're dead, Natsu."

"How will you kill me, Princess Heartfilia. I'm so much stronger than you…" Natsu sing-songed. In reality, he just wanted to bait her into fighting him. He needed to know how much stronger she was, and how many new techniques she had.

Lucy appeared to be even more pissed off, though that was to be expected.

"You are dead. 5 minutes. The field behind the hotel."

"Lucy, think about this. You don't know what your powers are yet. If y – " Lucy cut Master off mid-sentence.

"I'll be fine. I know some things a Celestial Wizard can do with a complete Second Origin. I even memorized some of the chants for my spells." Lucy replied, grinning widely.

Master still didn't look convinced. Natsu didn't really care. All he wanted was to fight Lucy.

The entire guild plus some others were waiting for Lucy and Natsu to brawl. The winner of this fight had to be Natsu, everyone told themselves, not yet believing that Lucy could be stronger than the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Or atleast, that's what Natsu thought they were thinking.

"Now, no seriously hurting each other, tomorrow is the first day of the Grand Magic Games. Any one of you not participating could seriously skew our chances of winning." said Master, who was acting as referee for this match.

"Thanks for the note of confidence, Gramps." Gray said sarcastically.

It sounded like something Lucy would've said.

Natsu couldn't let this get to him! He had to fight her with all he had.

"Yeah, whatever. Would you blow the whistle, Master?" Lucy sounded bored, as if fighting with Natsu was something she could do in her sleep. It was seriously discouraging.

"3, 2, 1, START BRAWLING!"

"Star Dress, Leo Form!" Lucy shouted right off the bat, taking Loke's key and burying it into her chest.

"WHOA! LUCY CHEST HAS A KEYHOLE!" Happy screamed.

_What the fuck? What was Star Dress? _

When the glowing light surrounding Lucy had died down, she was standing there in an elegant formal dress. It was black, with laces and frills at the edges and a deep cut neck. There was a tattoo on her left breast, which had to signify something.

"She's requipping?"

"When did she learn it?"

Lucy smirked, like she was enjoying the attention.

"Gate of the Lion, I open Thee. Come forth, LEO!" she said, waving a hand in front of her.

A huge lion appeared. And by huge, Natsu meant as tall as two Lucy's and with a roar that could rival a Dragon's. Its fur was absolutely golden, with no tinge of brown, and its fangs were enormous. One thing out of place for this tiger was this – it had a black bowtie made of silk.

Weirdly domestic.

That was Loke? Wow, he had gained some weight, hadn't he?

The sight of Lucy and Loke was certainly a daunting one, Natsu had to admit, but he had never been one to give up easily. His roar should easily scorch the Lion.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" he shouted, not predicting what Loke would do next.

He opened his jaw, and a beam of light with a lion's head came flowing out of it. It collided with Natsu's roar, resulting in a huge explosion and light and heat, burning some of the people in the front of the stands. It was strangely beautiful, Natsu thought, and lost in the beauty of the blast, he didn't notice Lucy come up behind him and Regulus Karate Chop him in the back of his neck.

"Payback." was all she said as Natsu floated out of consciousness.

* * *

Gray was shocked to see that Lucy had so easily defeated Natsu, though that was mostly Natsu's lack of a brain and the abundance of smart in Lucy.

He was also shocked to see Loke's new form, and Lucy's new ability. If she could do this with all of her spirits, then she could be extremely powerful even without the huge spells Gramps was talking about.

Loke had turned back into a human soon after the fight was over, and naturally he had been enveloped in golden light when he was transforming back into a humanoid form. (Was everything related to Lucy's magic gold?) Loke was a good friend of Gray's, so seeing him again had been kind of a relief. They had chatted some, and then gone inside to celebrate Lucy's win and Natsu's defeat – Gray didn't like Natsu, and Lucy was Loke's master, so Lucy winning worked for them both. Lucy was happily talking to the girls, and Gray was relieved to see that she hadn't picked up a drink. Right now, she looked exactly like the old Lucy, and her personality was exactly the same as well.

Gray had noticed that while calling on Loke, Lucy had used a different chant than she usually did. When he questioned this, Loke said that all spirits had two forms – a battle form and a humanoid form. Some spirits were stronger in the human form and some were stronger in the battle form. Loke was obviously stronger in the battle form. (This had made zero sense to Gray. If the spirits had a battle form, shouldn't the battle form always be stronger?)

"Anyways," Loke had said, "It depends upon Lucy in which form we appear. Her chant is different for our battle form and our human form, but once summoned we can change forms on demand."

"Oh." was all Gray had said, though it was still kinda confusing. So many things in one kind of magic.

Gray wished Lucy had told them that she could be this strong, albeit someday.

* * *

Yukino Aguria was thoroughly impressed by Lucy.

The Sabers had been watching the Lucy – Natsu fight, because, in Rufus' words – knowing your enemies' abilities always helps.

The ability of calling upon spirits in their battle form was a big achievement in itself – so far Yukino had only managed Pisces, and Ophihucus always appeared in his battle form – but the conversion of the leader of the zodiac into his battle form? Respect due. Also, Star Dress was an ability which took years to master, as you had to learn the different techniques of your spirits – it wasn't just borrowing of powers. From the looks of it, Lucy was stronger than Yukino by far, maybe even stronger than the Twin Dragons. If this was the power of Fairy Tail, then Sabertooth might have to give up their title of defending champions.

"Can you do that, Yukino?" asked Rogue, interested to compare the powers of the two Celestial Mages.

"Um… no, I can't. Star Dress requires a lot of magic power. I'll have to train a lot before trying to accomplish _that._"

"And changing the forms of your spirits?" he asked. Rogue seemed awfully interested in Celestial Magic.

"I've managed Pisces. I still have to work on the others."

"Oh. Okay."

"Which means that you're weaker than her." Sting said, looking down on her.

That tone made her feel awful. She liked this guy – this over-powerful idiot with all brawns and no brains, obsessed with gaining more power. Weird, right, especially since he always treated her like dirt.

Yukino looked down towards the ground, ashamed.

"Don't be so hard on her Sting. Lucy Heartfilia is probably stronger than you too." said Rogue, coming to Yukino's rescue.

"You're giving her too much credit, Rogue. Sure, she's pretty powerful, but she relies more on her brain than her strength. That gives her a disadvantage."

Sting was surely an idiot in the extremes if he thought that having a brain was a disadvantage.

* * *

A huge pumpkin man was in the sky.

No, really. Wendy couldn't believe her eyes, but there he was.

"Welcome, contestants of the Grand Magic Games, to the city of Crocus, the capital of Fiore," he said, his voice magically magnified, "As the number of participating teams in this year's Grand Magic Games is fairly high, it has been decided to hold a preliminary event to cut down the teams from 113 to 8."

"Gramps, what's the team? We haven't decided yet." Natsu, who had just woken up, said.

"It's pre-decided, Natsu. Team Natsu is going to be the team participating in the Games."

"Why is it called Team Natsu? I mean, can't we call it Team Lucy, or Team Erza?"

"Just because. Now shut up and listen, Lucy."

Lucy looked st Erza as if she wanted to pick a fight, but then thought better of it. "Whatever, Erza."

"A Sky Labyrinth has been set up in the capital to decide the teams. The rules are simple – it's a maze. Find your way to the Domus Flau before the others do. The first eight teams shall be selected to participate in the main event. Good luck!" the giant pumpkin man screamed. Wendy thought that he was cute.

"Let's go!" Natsu screamed, fist pumping the air, "We have to win!"

Lucy smirked. "Leave this to me."

She brought out a silver key. "Star Dress, Pyxis Form!"

A giant pink penguin suit appeared on her body. Natsu and Gray immediately started cracking up. A dark aura appeared around Lucy.

"Do you have a problem with this form?" she asked, deliberately calm and glaring. Her look sent shivers up Wendy's spine.

"No ma'am!" the two idiots said in unison.

"Stop wasting your time! Lucy where do we have to go?" Erza said.

"We entered from the south, so we have to go up north until we reach the Domus Flau. Its just that there are so many twists – "

"Leave _this_ to me." Natsu said, smirking, "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The twists and turns burned away, leaving a clear pathway with light at the end of it. The Fairy Tail team ran towards the light as fast as they could, leaving nothing but dust in their wake. When they reached the end, Wendy could see the giant pumpkin man waiting for them, although one thing was different about him – he was tiny.

"Congratulations!" he said. They surely had to be first, Wendy thought. After all, they had taken, like, 5 minutes. "You've barely made it – you're in the eighth place."

"Huh?" said Lucy dumbly. Somewhere in the way, she had changed back to her normal clothes.

A cold wind passed through the team. _Eighth!_ Just how strong were the others?

"So we have Team Fairy Tail in eighth place!" tlhe pumpkin announced to the throng. Wendy was shocked to hear only boos coming from the crowd, as she believed that atleast some people must still believe in Fairy Tail. But just that moment, a huge amount of cheers overwhelmed the stadium, as the rest of the Fairy Tail members were shouting so loudly that the boos were mostly drowned out.

Wendy noticed the First Master among the other members. But she dint have time to think about that, because the next guild was soon to be annonunced.

"In seventh place, the wild guld, Quatro Cerebrus! In sixth place, the all-female guild, Mermaid Heel!"

The people were cheering pretty loud.

"In fifth place, Blue Pegasus – with a new member too – led by Ichiya!" pumpkin said, gesturing to the newly arrived guild – one member in a bunny suit.

Cheers.

"In fourth place, Lamia Scale, one of the strongest guilds of Fiore, led by the Ten Wizard Saint Jura!"

Louder cheers.

"In third place, the newly light guild, Raven Tail!" shouted pumpkin.

"I thought they were a dark guild, Mr. Yajima." said Chapati Lola (a commentator) into his mic.

"They've recently turned good," said Mr. Yajima, whom Wendy recognized as a former Council member, "They're recognized by the Council as a light guild now."

From their faces, it certainly didn't look like it.

"And now for the second place guild, Team Fairy Tail B!" pumpkin screamed.

Silence.

"What in the name of the holy and infinite fuck!?" screamed Lucy, angered by this.

Laxus, Gajeel, Mira, Juvia and Mystogan suddenly appeared in front of the crowd. _Mystogan?_ How was he here? Wasn't he supposed to be in Edolas? Then it suddenly struck her – it was Jellal. Obviously. They both looked alike so nobody could tell the difference. This was a nice idea of master's, though it didn't stop Wendy from being the teensiest bit angry at him for not telling them.

"What happened, Bunny girl? Cat got your tongue?" Gajeel said teasingly, leering at Lucy, who looked murderous.

She started to walk towards them.

"I"LL KILL YOU! YOU LITTLE – "

"I"LL HELP YOU!" shouted Natsu, joining Lucy.

Erza and Gray caught them before they could do any serious damage.

Thank god.

"My, my," said Mirajane, smiling at the both of them, "Try to control your anger."

"SHUT UP!" Lucy screamed, spit practically flying from her mouth,, "HOW DID YOU EVEN COME SECO – "

"It's a secret, Blondie." said Laxus, interrupting Lucy and winking at her.

Erza covered Lucy's mouth before she could spit any other profanities at them. After two seconds, Lucy seemed to come to her senses and she shrugged off Erza's hands, pointing at the other team, "You're going to lose anyway, so it doesn't matter. Weaklings."

It was Gajeel's turn to get angry.

Thankfully, pumpkin chose that moment to announce the next team, because both Lucy and Gajeel were about to rumble.

"And the first guild, the defending champions – Sabertooth!"

The screams were practically deafening.

The guild walked into the grounds of the Domus Flau, their cocky faces sickening and arms spread wide. _Arrogance can be your downfall._ Grandeeney's words appeared into Wendy's mind, as arrogance was pouring off these idiots. It _was_ going to be their downfall. Wendy would make sure of it.

Erza went forward to Team B, probably wanting to talk to Jellal. She muttered some things, and he replied in the same hushed tones, and Erza quickly hurried back.

"Let the Grand Magic Games begin!"

* * *

**4000 words – it's like I keep increasing a thousand words every chapter.  
So I started watching Ouran High School Host Club at the recommendation of a friend – I wanted to watch a comedy anime. It's fine in terms of comedy, but what's the story? I mean, is it just one random episode after another? (Also, in Tite Kubo's words – I judge an anime by its opening sequence, and OHSHC's opening theme failed to impress. ****_Kiss, Kiss, fall in Love? _****Seriously? Come on.) Tell me the story, also tell me if I should watch it, and suggest any other comedy anime.  
I'm gonna make Lucy fight in the next chapter – prepare to be blown away.  
REVIEW! NO REVIEW NO VIEW! That's my rule!  
REVIEW! PLEASE! REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! Let me tell you – this chapter is going to be a-maze-ing (the things I write about, not how I write them), even if I do say so myself.  
You're gonna love what I'm gonna do. And thanks for the advice, by the way.  
My Bleach 55 to 66 arrived. I finished them all in 2 hours. I want more. Has the 67****th**** been released yet?  
I'm also writing a JeLu fic! The story may seem kind of not thought out, but trust me, you will like it. I think.  
SUMMARY (of the JeLu stroy, not this one) -  
Lucy and Erza are back in the place of their nightmares, haunted by the boy in their dreams. But this time, they are not alone. And they were going to make sure that no one would ever have to go through what they did.  
The summary sucks, so I think I'll change it. You get the idea of the story, right? Would you like to read such a story. Tell me in the reviews section, k?**

**Anyways, let's continue.**

* * *

Goddamn motherfuckers. This was cheating – no way were two teams from the same guild allowed. Also, having two guild members in the same event could prove to be a disadvantage as well – if one was used as a hostage, it would force the other's hand. Master clearly hadn't thought this one through. He should've taken some advice from First Master, since she was considered to be the best tactician ever born – Lucy hoped to follow her footsteps.

Also, the other team was clearly stronger – Laxus and Jellal were both in that one – it just wasn't fair.

Giant-pumpkin-man-who-turned-out-to-be-a-midget was telling them all the rules of the Games – there was going to be a special event every day, followed by a string of battle matches. The participants from each team were selected by the teams themselves for the event round, but the pairings for the battle round were chosen by the referees.

The first event was going to be Hidden. It sounded like a game of hide-n-seek, and Lucy thought it would be an easy one. They chose to send Gray out in this event. So, Lucy wasn't worried. Gray had enough of a brain; he wasn't easy to beat either. He was a nice selection for any event.

She hardly knew the members selected from the other guilds – some guy from Quatro Cerebrus, some girl from Mermaid Heel, a short purple guy from Raven Tail (that guild was dodgy for sure,), Rufus from Sabertooth. Fairy Tail B team had chosen to send Juvia – the idiots, their own loss. If Gray was in the game, Juvia was sure to be distracted. The two people Lucy knew were Lyon and Eve – she had worked with them during the Nirvana incident. From what she knew, Gray was stronger than Eve easily, but Lyon could prove to be problem. That Rufus guy looked like trouble too, though the other thing he looked like was a tranny. But no offense.

Lucy just hoped Gray would come in atleast 3rd.

* * *

Gray was amazed by the sudden conversion of the barren ground of the Domus Flau into a city, and was even more amazed by the appearance of hundreds of every participating member.

The rules of the game had been explained to them – it was basically large scale hide and seek. They had to find the other participating members and hit them. Whether or not their hit caused any damge didn't matter – they would gain one point, although being hit would result in loss of two points. It was easy enough – atleast before the sudden arrival of thousands of copies of the guild members participating in the event.

Now, Gray would have to think of a way to find out who was real and who was not.

While racking his brain, he didn't notice the purple guy – Nalpudding, was it? – come up behind him and slam his head with a spiky arm. Immediately, a sharp pain shot through his body and Gray… disappeared.

He looked around for any sign of the purple guy, but couldn't even find a copy. Chapati's voice suddenly came into the announcer – ten second timeout, he said.

Gray was going to kill that purple headed midget. That little punk was going to get it.

He didn't notice Nalpudding come up behind him again, and slam his head once more.

What the fuck? , he thought, Why is he only after me?

When he arrived back into the makeshift city after his ten second timeout, he saw on the scoreboard that Eve had climbed up the ranks – he was in third place. When he looked back down, he saw that almost everyone was here, all the guilds going to go on a final brawl. Just as Gray was about to hit Lyon, Juvia appeared on the top of the nearest building and slammed down onto Lyon, flashing them both in the progress. Lyon blushed and said 'So worth it.' before disappearing, and Gray started getting angry, because even if she had a crush on him, he didn't need her help.

"I know you don't need my help. I'm not helping you. I'm going to defeat you, no matter what." she said, answering his unasked question.

"Um… why?"

"Because of what Master Makarov promised us."

"What exactly did he promise you?" Gray asked, narrowing his eyes. He had a bad feeling about this…

"Well, we weren't really excited about being called team B, so he promised us that whichever team won would get a chance to make the losing team do whatever they wanted for 1 week. Basically, if we win, you're our slaves."

"This better apply to us too!" shouted Gray into the camera, to which, somewhere far away, Master replied in the positive.

Lost in their talk, both of them didn't notice Nalpudding come up behind them a slam them both into oblivion.

_What was his deal? Why was he only targeting Fairy Tail members?_

When Gray arrived back into the city, a voice was talking to them all, magically enhanced. He searched for the owner of this voice, and finally found him – the Sabertooth member, standing on top of a church spire. He wasn't exactly hiding, was he? After finding him, Gray listened carefully to his words; ' – too easy for me. Therefore, I will take all of you out with a single strike.' Gray didn't know who this guy thought he was, but he wasn't backing down. Not until –

"Memory-Make: A Night of Falling Stars!"

A yellow light beamed upon him, and Gray screamed in pain. Judging from the screams of the others, everyone had been hit by Rufus' spell. By the time Gray's ten second timeout ended, the game was over. And with one look at the scoreboard, he could see that the two Fairy Tail teams were at last place. His team was the absolute last, with zero points.

Gray had lost this time, but he would make sure of two things – of not losing again, and of revenge.

* * *

The first match of the day was between Lucy of Fairy Tail A and Rufus of Sabertooth. Lucy didn't know why Rufus had been chosen once more after participating in the event, but he didn't look like he had any qualms about it. _Why would he?_ she thought, _He suffered no damage._

She wanted to squash this guy for doing that to Gray, but she knew that Gray would want revenge himself. So she would be sure to make this short.

When they stepped onto the ground, the crowd was cheering only for Sabertooth. Lucy didn't let that get to her. She would give Fairy Tail a spectacular victory. Mr. Tranny looked completely at peace, his cocky face jutted out. _God, how Lucy wanted to break that unusually long nose._

"Now remember, there is a thirty minute time limit. If you exceed this limit, the match will be called as a draw." said pumpkin, looking up at them. He then ran off the ground as fast as he could, afraid of the both of them.

"Begin!"

Both of them stood in their respective places, neither moving to attack.

"You humiliated us, so I want revenge," said Lucy, surveying his expression.

"Oh, really," he said, arrogance dripping off in streams.

"But, you humiliated Gray in particular, so I'm gonna leave you to him. I'll make this short."

He still looked cool as a cucumber, though Lucy could see his anger in his eyes.

Success.

Lucy took out Aquarius' key, and turned it in her chest."Star Dress, Aquarius Form!" she shouted, and knowing what came next, steeled herself for the pervy looks.

After the gold light died down, Lucy stood there in a light blue bikini top, with zigzag yellow designs covering the entirety of it, and a dark blue miniskirt which barely covered anything. Her biceps were covered in a frilly material which was tied to her arms with a ribbon. Her collarbone and sternum were covered by a tattoo matching Aquarius', and that was all she had on. The stands were cheery and shouting, and Chapati was saying, 'No one is sorry that Miss Lucy Heartfilia has used her Star Dress.'

What a complete idiot.

"I memorized this technique of yours beforehand, Miss Lucy." said Rufus jeeringly.

"What will you do about it? You can only use Star Dress with my Keys, your so-called Memory Make won't work. Also, I only used my Leo Form, and in that too, only one technique was used. You can't copy my spirits' magic, they're not humans," said Lucy, noticing him widen his eyes, "Celestial Magic is your weakness."

"You're wrong." He said, now clearly angry. "Memory Make: Sword of Frozen Black Lightning!"

Dozens of bolts of black lightning startled Lucy, but she did nothing. All of them crackled into the spot where she was standing, and turned into ice upon contact with the ground. A huge amount of dust puffed up in a cloud, and when it cleared, Lucy was still standing there with a smug look on her face and a thin sheet of water around her.

"Wha-? But how? She didn't even move?" Rufus said stupidly. His expression was priceless to Lucy.

"My Aquarius form has many abilities, but this is its main one. The Aquarius form of Star Dress is a complete defensive magic. I don't even have to move – if I'm attacked, the Water Barrier immediately forms around me. And it's pretty obvious to me that you can use my abilities when I use Star Dress, but if I call my spirits, their magic should be out of your reach," said Lucy, smirking at Rufus' dumbstruck face, "I'm blonde, but I'm not a bimbo. However, even knowing this, I'm not gonna call a spirit. I want to take you out myself."

She crouched down on one knee, and placed one fist high above her head. She closed her eyes and a look of intense concentration appeared on her face.

_"Open the Ground, Split the Earth,_

_ All the dirt, spread far across…." _

"What's she doing?" said Chapati, squinting to catch a good look.

"_Swallow me…_

_Spread across the earth."_

"Don't tell me she's going to…" said Makarov, his eyes widening in horror.

_"Oh Gaia… _

_I am the ruler of the Earth…"_

"She's learnt them all?! It's such a high level spell…" said Hibiki, completely hypnotized by the spell which was one of _them_, the set of spells which were so hard to cast, and were so draining. She was casting a Planetary Spell, one of which he had taught her himself. But what he hadn't known was that she would learn the rest so quickly.

"_Aspect become complete…_

_ Open thy malevolent gate."_

"Go Lucy!" Natsu screamed, not caring what she was doing. It was just so Natsu.

_"Oh 44 masses of land, Shatter!" _she continued, smirking and saying three words before casting the spell completely – "Memorise this, bitch._ TERRÉ BRISÉ!_"

She slammed her fist down, hard. Cracks spread all over the ground of the Domus Flau, growing wider and wider until the entire ground gave way, except the little bit on which Lucy stood. Even if he'd been using a memory copy or whatever, no way could Rufus have been saved from this spell. He couldn't fly, could he?

Cheers were flying all around the stadium.

"And Lucy Heartfilia ends the match with just one strike, taking out the ground on which Rufus was standing. She's still perfectly unharmed, and she's barely sweating. Is this the power of the previously strongest guild?" said Chapati into his mic.

"Not so fast," said Rufus, climbing out of the non-existent rubble. He must've held on to the side of the stadium, and he was currently bruised and bleeding in various places. "I can still fight."

"No you can't. Give up." said Lucy. Even if he was an enemy, she couldn't let him fight in this condition.

"I can't."

There was a moment of silence in which Lucy stared at him. Then she said "Very well. I'll finish you off."

Before giving him a chance to attack, she waved her hand in his direction and said "Water Pillar." solemnly, as though she was killing him. A giant pillar of water appeared from the ground and trapped Rufus inside it, and she let it stay that way till he fell unconscious. She then let him fall to the stands, which were still unshattered and in one piece. He lay there, breathing but unconscious, his hat fallen off in the fight. Now that she had an idea of what Sabertooth members must go through, she couldn't quite hate them as much.

The people started cheering for Lucy, chanting her name again and again. Lucy didn't smile or wave or laugh, she just stood there with a sad look on her face, because she now knew what the Sabertooth members had to go through.

"Lucy Heartfilia ends the match once and for all! Rufus is unconscious, and I'm sure none of us were expecting _this!_ Two strikes is all it took to end Rufus, and Lucy is unhurt. She truly is a force to be reckoned with, and with more powerful members in Fairy Tail, god knows how Sabertooth will be able to defend themselves." Chapati said cheerfully, his mic practically stuffed in his face. The idiot was still so into this stuff. The stands were screaming too. Did they not get her mood?

But when Lucy looked at the Fairy Tail stands, they were laughing and cheering.

No one got her mood after all.

Except Team Natsu, that is. They were staring at her with concern, and they knew that something was wrong. Lucy could tell from their eyes.

It was nice to be cared about so much that people knew your feelings before you showed them on your face.

* * *

The entire guild was rowdy and partying, and positive comments about Lucy's performance were flying around like mosquitoes.

Lucy wanted peace and quiet, so she decided on taking a walk with Erza along the river. They had to catch up on their girl talk after all, and she wanted to talk about the other matches to someone. Jura had defeated Jellal (it was 1000% Meredy's doing), Ren had slayed Arana, and Flare killed Warcry.

Lucy didn't know where it was coming from, but thinking about Jellal made her angry. Very angry. Sure, he had been under a spell while doing the things he did, but her mind just wouldn't accept him. Everyone had already forgiven him, and Lucy had thought that she had too. Also, he was trying to make up for his past sins. _What else do I want? _

So when Jellal suddenly appeared out of the shadows and wished to talk to Erza, her anger flared. She knew she had to control it, so all she said was, "Whatever, Starboy."

It had been enough to tip Erza off. Why did they all know her so well?

"So I see you haven't forgiven him." Erza said, looking at Lucy with a _why?_ look in her eyes.

Oh, well. Lucy might as well just let it out.

"No, I haven't forgiven him. And I don't get why you should too."

Jellal looked startled. He wouldn't have expected Lucy Heartfilia of all people to not forgive his sins.

"Lucy…" he said, but one look from her was enough to tell her that it was the wrong move.

"Don't Lucy me. You did horrible things. You can't just expect me to forget all of the pain you caused Erza and the others."

"Lucy…" said Erza, repeating Jellal's previous words. All the Lucy's were really pissing her off. She had just wanted peace and quiet, and all she got was the appearance of Mr. Jellal Fernandes. Lucy fully supported his locking up, and was now questioning herself on why she had fought for him when they were arresting him. She supposed that her anger was directed towards Sabertooth and how its members were treated, but since she could do nothing about it, she aimed it all at Jellal. She didn't know why, and honestly did not care. As long as she got to be angry at something, she would be happy.

Anger was a much better emotion than pity.

"Don't, Erza. Whatever. Just whatever."

And with that, she stalked off.

* * *

"You only have to wait a few days, Lord Zeref. Then the plan will be set into motion. We just have to capture Lucy Heartfilia."

* * *

**_At the end of the day, the scores are as follows (in case you were wondering)-_**

**_1: Raven Tail_**

**_2: Fairy Tail A_**

**_2: Sabertooth_**

**_3: Lamia Scale_**

**_4: Blue Pegasus_**

**_5: Mermaid Heel_**

**_6: Quatro Cereberus_**

**_7: Fairy Tail B_**

**_Sabertooth and Fairy Tail A are tied, so no, my numbering is not wrong._**

* * *

**So I went and got myself addicted to Ouran.  
I know what I wrote in the previous chapter was basically critiquing the show, but now Ouran is my cocaine.  
I only started writing this chapter after finishing the anime, and I am now reading the manga. Is there some kind of difference between the anime and manga? If not, then let me know. I would rather not waste my time. And also, forgive me if this chapter feels kind of not good. I wrote it in an hour, because I wanted to post it. I don't know why I couldn't wait longer, but I swear I will revise and change all the chapters once I am in the mood to.  
I started watching Daily Lives of High School Boys. It's so funny that I'm ashamed that I didn't watch it sooner. **

**I need your reviews people. It's what inspires me to keep writing, both the negative and the positive ones. **

**Please review. I'm begging you.  
….**

**….**

**Not really. If you don't review I'll kill you. So it's basically a threat.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey! I'm posting the next chappie, which is just pure fluff.  
I got only 6 reviews for the previous chapter. That's lower than any other chapter yet. So I want more reviews now. SO REVIEW, GODAMNIT!  
I watched Seitokai Yakuindomo. It's kind of dirty and pervy, but when they turn into chibis while talking about something particularly dirtier, I laugh so hard.  
For now, I'm continuing the story.**

* * *

Stalking off had been the dramatic exit Lucy had been looking for, (The whatever had been a nice touch too,) but now that she was wandering the streets by herself, she really couldn't find a way to entertain herself. She was now wondering why exactly she had ditched Erza, and was regretting her decision. She could've just waited till Jellal and Erza's conversation was over, and she could've continued her walk with Erza then.

But the dramatic exit had been so worth it.

Oh, well. She guessed she just had to go back to the guild and –

"You're Lucy, right?"

She turned around to face the owner of that voice, only to find one of the Twin Dragons. The black, gloomy one, who always seemed indifferent to stuff around him, was now staring at her as if she was a Da Vinci painting hanging in a local art gallery. His voice was deep and husky, kind of warm, and just plain sexy. He looked pretty hot too – his face was certainly something special, even with those bangs covering half his face – but he chose not to flaunt his hotness, unlike his blondie partner. (and as sad as Lucy was to admit it now, herself.)

She didn't know how to talk to random hot guys who just walked up to her! What did he want to hear? _Yes, I am, and who're you?_ No, that was too polite – she didn't want to come off as uptight. _Yeah, what's up?_ She shuddered just at the thought of saying it – it sounded like she was one of those fathers who try too hard to be cool in front of his kids' friends.

Why was she even thinking about this? He was a Saber, for Gods' sake. He could die in a ditch for all she cared.

"Um… yeah, I am. You are…?" she said, trying to act nonchalantly. She didn't want to sound hostile, even if she hated his guts.

"Oh, yeah. Rogue. Rogue Cheney. I'm from S –"

"Sabertooth, yeah. I recognize you. Where's your blond friend?"

"Sting? Oh, he's at the hotel. Frosch wanted some juice, so I came to get him some."

"Frosch?"

"My Exceed. He's here – " Rogue said, turning to his right and looking down, only to find the ground.

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

"Why is Rogue screaming? Is something wrong?" said a pink frog climbing onto Rogue's shoulders from his back. The frog yawned widely, and that's when Lucy noticed the whiskers on its cheeks. So _this_ was Rogue's cat. It was so much cuter than Happy.

"CUTE! Gimme!" screamed Lucy, forgetting everything about keeping her composure and rushing towards Rogue with her arms spread wide. When she was near enough, the cat flew into her arms.

"Frosch doesn't know who you are, but you called Frosch cute. So Frosch will be your friend." The cat said, looking at Lucy and grinning widely. That cute little smile made her forget about Sabertooth and Jellal and everything else. Lucy pushed Frosch into her chest.

"I don't think Frosch will be able to breathe…" Rogue said, trailing off at the end and pointing at Lucy's plentiful chest. He was blushing just at the mention of her boobs, and it just looked so cute that she wanted to take him into her arms too. However, she didn't, and pulled Frosch out from her chest before he could turn blue.

Lucy twirled around with Frosch held up high some more, and was just about to give him back to his partner when Rogue said, "Do you want to get a drink somewhere?" while blushing so hard that his entire face was covered in red. _Cute. So he wanted to ask me out?_ Well, Lucy didn't really know what she was supposed to say when someone asked her to a drink.

Lucy knew that she should be careful around this guy. He could just be someone sent by Sabertooth to find out her strengths and weaknesses and this cute guy with cute pet thing could be an act. (If it was, he was really good. Maybe he should be an actor?) Maybe he was honest and he liked her. She was sure starting to crush on him.

Saying yes would certainly be dangerous. But she was a Fairy Tail member, wasn't she? Every day was dangerous.

* * *

What had Rogue been thinking? He had just asked Lucy out, and he didn't really know what or where or how dates happened. Rogue had no idea what he was supposed to do, but he was silently pleading for her to say yes.

So when she did, a huge smile split across Rogue's face, but his blush remained. That wasn't going to go anywhere today, he thought. His smile, however, prompted a shaky grin from Lucy. A slow blush spread across her face, and she looked absolutely _kawaii._ This girl who was standing in front of him, nervous and anxious, looked so different from the confident chick who had defeated Rufus. _Is this because of me? Is she just as nervous as me?_

"So, where should we go?" she asked, as if he knew. Technically, he should, but he hadn't exactly been planning to go anywhere other than the grocery shop.

"Um… I don't know."

"Oh."

They stood there in awkward silence. Lucy was still holding Frosch near her chest, but this time Frosch's face was pointed outwards, so he could breathe. Thank god. Lucy's boobs would've surely suffocated Rogue's Exceed.

"Let's go to a bar, or something." he suggested, tired of just standing there looking at the ground.

"I don't drink." Lucy said, pointedly.

He smiled at her – it wasn't the happy one or playful one. No, Rogue smiled at Lucy like he planned to corrupt her. He knew that he was as straight as an arrow (in more ways than one,) but Lucy was straighter than that. A little letting-your-hair-down once in a while couldn't hurt. They just had to make sure not to drink too much, in case they had to fight the next day.

"You can start now," he told her, and before she could protest, dragged her to the nearest bar he could find.

* * *

"… so Natsu just slammed into Gray, and they started fighting again!" said Lucy, finishing her story and taking another swig from her bottle of tequila. They had spent about half an hour searching for a drink Lucy liked – she had tried everything – beer, wine, vodka, even strawberry daiquiri. Rogue didn't know that the cheapest drink would turn out to be Lucy's favorite.

She had be cautious at first, taking a little sip of each drink before passing it on, but it had soon become clear that Lucy could absolutely _not_ hold her alcohol. The mixing of different types of drinks had only worsened her problem, so when the tequila had come along, Rogue had been silently praying that she would take a liking to it. What he hadn't anticipated, that the shots wouldn't be enough for her. She had downed the shots in 10 seconds flat, and ordered a bottle. The bottle lasted a bit longer, thank god.

They were telling and retelling the stories of their adventures with their respective team members, and most of them were funny. Rogue told Lucy about the time coke had come spurting out of Sting's nose, (Sting wouldn't be too happy about that) and Lucy told Rogue about the time the Fairy Tail members got drunk at their training camp. Both of them were laughing and smiling, though it was mostly Lucy's expression and less of the stories that mage Rogue laugh. She looked free and genuinely happy, the way she looked with her guild members.

The warmth that took over Rogue's body at this realization was hardly from all the alcohol he was consuming.

They had to stop drinking soon, he knew, but this time was so amazing that Rogue never wanted it to end. Lucy was smart and funny and hot and perfect and she was all he wanted.

Rogue never knew when or how, but he had started to fall for Lucy Heartfilia.

* * *

"Can I kiss you?"

The night she had spent with Rogue and Frosch had been so fun – even though he had just taken Lucy to a bar and nowhere else. A bar hadn't exactly been Lucy's idea of a perfect date, but Rogue had somehow made it more fun than an amusement park or a movie. She felt light and free and she wanted nothing more than to say yes to his question.

"Can I kiss you?"

The question was echoing in her head – so this was the type of guy Rogue was – the guy who asked permission to kiss her after he had lifted all her worries and all her anger from her body in one hour. Had it been one hour? Lucy certainly didn't feel like it. She hadn't looked at a clock on her way back home when she had been leaning on Rogue's shoulder.

"Can I kiss you?"

Lucy knew that she was drunk, she knew. But this felt somehow real, like her friends. Rogue was looking at her with yet another blush on his face, eyes alight with expectation. She wanted to say, _You can do more than kiss me._ She wanted him to do more than kiss her. She was drunk, but Lucy was no fool. If this gentlemanliness continued, she was going to fall hard.

"Can I kiss you?"

_Answer him, Lucy. _She did a little shoulder-angel-shoulder-devil thing. **A teeny peck couldn't hurt, right?** **_But this teeny peck could lead to something else entirely_**. **She probably won't remember it.** **_Lies. She had drunk alcohol, but not so much that her memory would be erased in the morning. What if it gets awkward? _****It won't. ****_Don't kiss him. _****You know you want to.**

"Can I kiss you?"

The devil won.

"Yes." Lucy replied, a little breathlessly.

He didn't hesitate. Rogue just moved forward and captured Lucy's lips with his own. He tasted of alcohol, but there was a little bit of cinnamon and spice, and it was – Lucy didn't have any other words to describe it – wonderful. She felt like she was melting and _oh, my god_ and wow, was he a good kisser and his tongue was doing things and the tiny little peck had suddenly turned into a full on make-out session but Lucy didn't care at all. He was pushing her up against the wall of the Fairy Tail hotel, wrapping her legs around his waist. She was kissing him back – this was her first kiss? She had sure gotten lucky. His hands were all over her and her hands were placed firmly on his cheeks, as if they wanted his face to remain in that position forever.

And way too suddenly, the lips were off hers and she was panting and he was panting and there was nothing to say except "Wow."

"Wow, indeed. You're a good kisser." Rogue said, looking at her eyes.

"Pot, kettle. You're a much better kisser than I am."

He grinned widely. "Thank you. Well, I think I should leave before your guild members see me with you and try to kill me."

"I think that would be a good idea." Lucy said, still not quite breathing normally.

Rogue kissed her hand that old fashioned knight in shining armor style. "Good night, Princess."

When had he turned so smooth? Lucy could swear that he had been a spluttering mess with a permanent blush on his cheeks. (Not that she was any better.) The blush was evident, but the stutters were all but gone. Maybe he was slowly turning into something like Loke.

Lucy hoped not.

* * *

When Lucy waltzed back into the room, it was later than 12 and Team Natsu was waiting for her, the worry evident on their faces. _Oops. I forgot to tell them._ Oh, well. She would just have to improvise, because if they found out that Lucy had gone out on a date with a Sabertooth member, they would skin both her and him. Also, she was totally wasted. It had been her second time getting drunk (she didn't remember the first time even now.), and Lucy wasn't thinking straight.

"Where were you?" said Erza, a dark aura surrounding her body.

"Yeah, Lucy. Where were you?" Gray asked, narrowing his eyes at Lucy.

"Um… _hic_… with Cana… _hic…" _Lucy replied, silently cursing the hiccups that had just begun. Couldn't they have fucking started sooner? Fate was not with her. However, she was pretty pleased with her lie. Now she would just have to convince Cana to cover for her.

"That explains the drunkenness. What were you thinking, Lucy? You are a member of the Fairy Tail A team. What if you can't wake up because of your damn hangover?" Erza scolded.

"I'll wake up, guys. Chill." Lucy said, hiccupping thrice in this small sentence.

"You'd better. Or we'll have to use Elfman for the entire tournament."

The fact that Lucy could be replaced so easily, even if it was just for the Games, pissed her off. However, she was too drunk to notice it.

"Yes, Erza. I shall... _hic..._ wake up at the allotted... _hic_... time and participate in the... _hic_... Games. Now can I... _hic..._ go to sleep?" she said, "Shut the fuck up, hiccups. I need to... _hic_... sleep."

"She's crazy." Happy said, earning a nod from Natsu.

Lucy was too tired to tell the stupid cat to shut up.

* * *

Lucy woke up too early in the morning. Her head was throbbing and her throat was parched. _So this is what a hangover feels like…_ She didn't want to feel something like this again, that was for sure.

Lucy remembered everything she and Rogue had done the previous night – the shots, the tequila, the stories, and worst of all, the kiss. What had she been thinking? Why had she let the devil win? It was surely going to be awkward around Rogue now, whenever she saw him. What if he had just been someone sent by Sabertooth to get her drunk? Maybe their egos had suffered too much the previous day, and they wanted Lucy out of the competition?

_Oh, my god. What have I done?_

Oh, well. She would have to deal with this later. Right now, she needed to puke.

Lucy opened the door and silently tiptoed out; making sure that it would not creak, so as to not wake her friends. If they knew that Lucy had a massive hangover, drinking would be forbidden till the end of time.

When Lucy reached the bathroom, she noticed that it was the same for both guys and girls. She knew from experience that guys were messy, so Lucy went to the lobby and got a tissue (or three). She was a girl who liked her hygiene.

So when she heard a retching sound coming from the stall she was about to enter a bit too late, Lucy knew that she was doomed.

The person in question was currently turning his head her way, having heard the creaking sound that the doors of this (cheap, _cheap_) hotel made. He was blond, with mussed up hair and an angular face. His body was clothed in a dark purple shirt and a pair of normal pants. The guy seemed to be normal enough. Thank god it wasn't someone from Fairy Tail.

That was what Lucy was thinking when she saw the lightning shaped scar over his right eye.

"Laxus?"

"Blondie?"

* * *

"You drank the day before an event? That is just so you." Lucy was saying. Talk about a hypocrite. She had thrown up just after Laxus had.

Hangovers were the worst part of a night in a bar, that was for sure. But the high that you got after drinking that much and the crazy things you did which you would never do when you were sober were worth all that trouble. Almost.

They were currently sitting on the corner seats in StarCoffee (which was open at five, thank gods.), which were always the plushiest and most comfortable, sipping on their Peppermint Mochas. Lucy had taken hers in a mug, which had always seemed to be kind of a nuisance to Laxus. Weird, thinking a cup was a nuisance, but if you could be more convenient with a travelling mug, he didn't know why the hell people drank from cups.

Blondie had walked in on Laxus puking – talk about embarrassing – just to exclaim his name and rush forward to puke in the same toilet bowl as Laxus. Seeing her puke made him realize that there was another side of Lucy – one that wasn't hidden under makeup and slutty clothing. Everyone had this side, obviously, Laxus just hadn't seen Lucy's anytime. She probably only acted free in front of her crazy friends.

After two more rounds of puking from both their sides, Lucy had asked Laxus what people did after suffering from a hangover. At first, he had been offended because Lucy had made it sound like Laxus drank a barrel every day, but he had quickly shrugged it off and recommended coffee. Because coffee was the one thing that could act as a medicine for any disease.

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. If you hadn't noticed, you're drunk too."

"Bite me."

"Only if you want me to." Laxus replied, flashing a feral grin.

Lucy blushed.

"You were right. I do feel better." Lucy said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Thank you."

"The peppermint is a nice touch."

"I know, right?"

This conversation was going nowhere, and they both knew it. So they just sipped at their coffee and stared at their cups/mugs in uncomfortable silence.

"Why were you drunk?" she asked him, trying to break the awkward silence.

"I felt like drinking. You got a problem?"

"You aren't supposed to be drinking. Did your grandfather not tell you that?"

"Since when do I listen to anything anyone says?"

Lucy thought about this for a moment and said, "You make a good point." She took another sip.

"Why were _you_ drunk? I thought cheerleaders like you didn't drink?" Laxus asked, wiggling his eyebrows and remembering the time Bickslow had seen her in a cheerleader outfit.

"I was with Cana. And it was one time, for god's sakes. When will you people let it go?"

"Don't lie. And never."

"How do you that I'm lying?"

"Because Cana was with us."

"Well, if anyone from my team asks, she was with me."

"Keeping secrets, Blondie? That is so unlike you."

"Shut the fuck up. Your annoying voice is increasing my headache. And I had a date, so I can't tell them."

"My voice is not annoying."

"Puh-lease. It's like nail grating on a chalkboard."

"What about your shrilly voice? Its penetrating my nerves and sending pain signals to my brain."

"You know what you just said is scientifically completely wrong."

"Whatever, Blondie. Anyways, why are you telling me about this mystery date?"

"Because I barely know you and you have no reason to tell my friends about my date. Also, you look like a person who knows how to keep secrets."

Lucy smiled her dazzling smile – not that flirty, sexy smirk she usually shot. No, this was a full-on grin, too big for her face. She looked amazing, even with the dark circles under her eyes. Suddenly, Laxus felt very jealous of the guy Lucy had gone on a date with. Then he felt extremely foolish for feeling that way, because Lucy was like, younger than him. A lot. He wasn't a pedophile.

Lucy gulped the last dregs of her coffee and got up from her seat. "Thanks for the coffee, Laxus. I owe you one."

With that, she left, leaving Laxus to wonder why he had just felt a pang in his heart.

* * *

**How was it guys? Fluffy fluff fluff, just because I haven't given you any yet.  
So I'm making this a both RoLu and LaLu story, because the votes are like equal. And I've never seen a LaLuRo story before.  
REVIEW, GUYS.  
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Yo guys! Your favorite author is back (with a bang)! I'm sorry for not updating earlier - this update took the most amount time to write, I don't know why. It's not the best of them - it's mostly foreshadowing, but its better than nothing right?  
Oh, well. I promise to devote more of my time and concentration to writing. My life has just been supremely busy with the exhibition at school, but now that it's finally ended, I can resume writing.**  
**Promise me you won't stop reading.**

* * *

The next event of the day was Wings – it looked simple enough. The contestants just had to ride a moving plane-caterpillar-thingy with real-time folding and unfolding wings, and the one who would reach the finish line first would win. Easy-peasy. Erza hardly expected anyone other than the Fairy Tail teams to win. If she, Lucy, Gray or Wendy competed, then this event would be in the bag.

They just had to stay wary of Sabertooth and Raven Tail. Those guilds had enough motive to try and sabotage Fairy Tail's game.

Where the hell was Lucy anyway? It was 8 already, and she was nowhere to be seen. Erza was getting seriously getting worried – about their chances to win, not about Lucy. She was capable enough, but if she kept slacking off like this, it was going to mean trouble. Gray had vanished too. What were they doing?

Maybe they were secretly a couple but didn't want to tell anybody because telling one person meant telling the whole guild.

"Oi, Erza!" came Natsu's brash voice from beside her. Their team (excluding Gray and Lucy) were waiting in the balcony overlooking the Domus Flau. All of the guilds were also already in their respective balconies, and Erza was getting seriously worried. Was the attendance of all the members of a team during an event important? She couldn't remember.

"Yes, Natsu?"

"Can I take part in this event?" Natsu's eyes were shining, the competitive fire dancing in them. Erza knew about his motion sickness – everyone did. But that look on his face told her that he would try to win, no matter what. So she said something really dumb.

"Yeah, okay."

* * *

As soon as the words were out of Lucy's mouth, Gray went into a state of permanent shock.

"Can you train me?"

That was the last thing he had been expecting her to say when she approached him in the morning and asked him to follow her. Train _her? _As if she needed training. Well, she did, but her daily evening training was overlooked by Capricorn, because that guy knew _everything._

Gray didn't know why Lucy needed an ice-make wizard to train her. There was a huge difference between their magic; did she even have an ice spell?

When they met at an open field where Capricorn usually trained Lucy, Gray finally voiced his thoughts. "Why do you want _me_ to train _you?_"

"Okay, look. There's this spell, the first one, related to the sun."

"Then shouldn't you get Natsu for that? I mean, a fire wizard would be much more help to you."

"Would you shut up, Gray?" Lucy said, flashing an angry look at him, "You see, this spell doesn't have any special element to it. It can basically be anything. Don't interrupt," she said, correctly recognizing the look on Gray's face, "Capricorn said that the Ice form was the easiest of them all, though it will still drain my magic power beyond anything. That's why I want you to train me – you're the only person who'll be able to stand the intense cold, apparently."

Gray mulled this over for a minute. He felt a little defensive sting when she said that the ice form was the easiest, but felt an amazing pride when she said that he was the only one who could stand it. From the sound of it, the spell was pretty powerful.

But he didn't really have a choice – his teammate wanted help – there was no way anyone in Fairy Tail would say no.

* * *

"Where are they?" Master said, fuming at his ears. "I swear if they're hooking up somewhere-"

"You and your dirty mind Master," said Levy, sweatdropping, "Though I _do_ want to know where they are…"

A huge mushroom cloud of ice rose up in the atmosphere, near to the grassy field where Lucy usually trained with Capricorn. It was quite far away, so it was only visible to those who were looking for it. Mavis noticed it instantly.

"Can you not sense it, Third?" said the First Master, "The girl is training with the boy. Look," she said, pointing into the horizon, where Makarov could barely see the puff of ice.

Makarov looked bewildered, thinking 'Why is she training _now?_ She's strong enough', and after thinking about it a bit, he realized that he could, in fact, sense her magic, all the way over here. It was somehow intermixed with Gray's, with a cold sense of foreboding, like 'Don't cross us, or we'll freeze you till you're nothing but a chunk of ice'

"What, a Unision Raid? They can already do it – I've seen them."

"No, not a Unision Raid, Third. Its only Lucy's magic you are sensing," she said, looking far into the horizon, as if she could see her, "but it is not nearly as strong as it could be." The icy magic pressure faded away as soon as she finished her sentence. It had been a small duration of time – maybe it was so powerful as to finish the game in a few seconds, or that was all Lucy could currently manage.

"She has grown strong, Makarov." The First Master said. "She may be the next Master."

Master looked at her in disbelief. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. She may turn as strong as Gildarts someday, but she is much more responsible. She will be the perfect candidate."

And now, thinking about it, Makarov realized just how right Mavis was.

* * *

"Finally! Where the hell were you?" Erza said, looking at the two people who had just walked into their balcony. They looked mussed up – Gray's hair was even more unruly than usual, and Lucy was panting like no tomorrow. There were also small chunks of ice in the duo's hair – so they liked it kinky, huh?

"At the hotel," said Lucy coolly, "We were hooking up."

"I KNEW IT!" Erza screamed, earning the stares of every other guild, to which she said, "What the fuck do you think you're looking at?"

"If you were hooking up," Happy said, dirtying it up, "Why is there ice in your hair?" Erza didn't know that cats could get a sly look on their face, but this cat certainly did. It was like he was imagining them use ice in kinky ways.

Lucy shot him a sly smirk. "You don't want to know."

Gray, who had been looking blank throughout this exchange, finally snapped back to his senses and said "Enough. We were training."

"Training? Now? What if one of you is called out for the battles? Your magic-"

We'll be fine, Erza. My battle is already over, so they can't call me again. Gray wasn't really training as training me."

"Training you? And FYI, you can be chosen to battle even after battling once. I hope you know that."

"Yes, I'll give you the details later. And I have enough magic energy left to fight. So don't worry."

"I better not have to." Erza gave Lucy the stinkeye.

"By the way, I meant to ask you this. WHY, OH, WHY IS NATSU IN A CHALLENGE REVOLVING AROUND, YOU KNOW, HIS ONLY WEAKNESS?" Lucy shouted, staring at her best friend, who was standing in the center of the Domus Flau. When he spotted her, he waved, looking enthusiastic and _fired up_. Lucy could do nothing but smile and wave back. When he looked back at the pumpkin, listening to (or atleast pretending to listen to) the rules, Lucy let the angry look reappear on her face.

"He asked me if he could take part. He looked so enthusiastic, I couldn't resist."

And just as suddenly as it had appeared on her face, Lucy's look of anger dissipated completely. "Well, if he had that look on his face, he's gonna give it all he has."

"_That _look?"

Lucy stared at the blank faces of her team members. "Yeah. That look he gets?" At them looking just as blank, she said, "Oh come on, you know what I'm talking about." Team Natsu still looked at her with a mixture of blankness and curiosity on their face. "You _don't_ know. I can't believe that you call him your best friend."

"What look?" Gray snapped, losing his patience.

"That look with wide and fiery eyes, trembling lips. He somehow mixes it with his puppy dog face – so no one can say no."

…

…

…

"Would you say something already?" It was Lucy's turn to snap, because her best friends were staring off into the sunset with a faraway, thoughtful look in their eyes. She could see the recognization start to glint in each one's eyes – so they finally figured out what look Lucy was talking about. Good. Natsu almost always had that look on his face – if they couldn't recognize it when they saw it, Lucy was afraid that she would have to commit murders for the sake of her best friend.

"Good. Now you know what I'm talking about. Come on," Lucy said, stretching a hand faced downwards, a sign to do a cheer. All of the others placed their palms on top of hers, and after the three second countdown, they all raised their arms and shouted "GO NATSU!" before taking their spots in the front of the balcony.

When Natsu heard it, he smiled wider than ever.

Lucy looked towards the Sabertooth balcony – she could practically hear the seething across the vast arena. That guy, Sting, and the tranny, Rufus were staring at them. Most of their anger was directed at Lucy, she knew, but she could also tell that they were annoyed by their cheer for Natsu. Lucy had a vague idea about how Sabertooth worked, so she didn't really blame them.

Rogue and the girl-clad-in-blue didn't seem to harbor any hate towards Fairy Tail – in fact, both of them had barely concealed looks of slight jealousy on their faces. Lucy knew why Rogue wasn't seething – she still blushed when she thought about the previous night – but that girl - Yukino was it? – was also staring at Lucy, with the jealousy evident on her face. But if it was her power she was jealous of, or their teamwork, Lucy couldn't figure out.

She didn't give much thought to it, choosing instead to focus on Natsu's event.

* * *

Natsu was kinda scared, not that he would ever admit it.

Sure, he was all fired up. But it had even more stupid of him than usual to choose to participate in an event which was focused around his weakness. Why had he chosen to participate in this event? Couldn't he have waited till the next one?

But that wasn't all. There was no one around him this time to give him support. Sure, they were cheering in the stands, but cheering could only do so much. The warmth of having his team around him, or even better, the peaceful calm (yes, he actually _liked_ the calm. Could he continue now?) of only the original Team Natsu – Natsu, Happy and Lucy – could never be replaced by cheering.

Spectators were shouting Fairy Tail's name – so Lucy's performance had impressed them – but the cheers for the other guilds was deafening, especially the ones for Sabertooth.

_Sabertooth. _Even Natsu could see that they had some kind of problem with Fairy Tail – especially that blond-haired Dragon Slayer – the one Natsu had met the day before, the one had claimed that he and his partner were "true" Dragon Slayers. Natsu didn't know what to make of that – Blondie's black-haired partner seemed to be nice enough. Natsu had seen Lucy and him having fun in the bazaars.

Whatever. Natsu didn't have time to focus on such trivial things.

* * *

Natsu came in second. Second to last, of course.

Lucy couldn't believe it.

That idiot Sting, Rogue's partner, was so goddamn arrogant – it pissed Lucy off. "I'll give this one to you." What the literal _fuck. _As if he could ever even touch Natsu. Sting hadn't even _participated_, for fuck's sake! He had just gloated when Natsu and Gajeel had come in at the last spots. Lucy couldn't believe that best friends and partners could be so different. (She ignored the little voice in the back of her head that said "Like you have room to talk.")

The event had been trivial – it seemed to be too lackluster for Natsu to actually participate in it. Hidden had atleast been kind of interesting – this one was not at all. Sabers' green haired guy – Orga, as she had just learnt – had come in first. He used lightning God Slayer magic – he looked on par with Laxus, maybe even Jellal. Even though Lucy didn't really know the difference between Laxus' and Jellal's skills, she had always just assumed that Jellal was stronger. And – she didn't want to admit it, but – Lucy was biased. After all, Jellal's magic was kind of similar to her own.

Second had been Bacchus, the guy who had come into Fairy Tail's hotel the day before and challenged Cana to a drinking contest, which she surprisingly lost. (He also sexually harassed her later. Gildarts was not going to be happy.) Third was the Raven Tail emo guy, followed by the "Don't underestimate the chubby!" girl from Mermaid, who in turn was followed by Yuka of Lamia Scale. Sixth was Ichiya of Pegasus, with Natsu and Gajeel taking up the last two spots.

Lucy was kind of surprised by the fact that she didn't even know the names of most of her opponents.

Oh, well. At least she knew who the threats were.

* * *

**Yosh! Sorry for not describing Natsu's event, but it's going to help Lucy majorly in the future.  
Oops! You weren't supposed to know that. Oh,well. (I say 'Oh, well' a lot, don't I?)  
Guys did you read the latest chapter of Fairy Tail? (which includes my queen Lucy fighting the bad guys with power equaling her teammates!) It's finally canon, haters. Lucy is officially as strong as any other Fairy Tail mage, using only about 15% of her magic. Her Taurus form is sexy _and_ powerful. Making enemies fly and the ground shatter with a single strike of her whip with a smugass look on her face?**

**Fucking perfect. **

**Anyways, don't forget to review, guys. I'll be counting on you to be patient with me.  
REVIEW.  
REVIEW.**


	8. Teaser from the sequel

**Hey! This isn't really a chapter guys – it's an excerpt from my (planned, but not sure) sequel to this story. I've started on the manuscript, but I don't know if it'll be too much or something. Vote on the poll on my profile, and post your opinions in the reviews. If I get enough of 'yes's, I'll start working on it seriously.**

***JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU THAT ME, percyjacksonroxx, AM NOW SHAY ITTEN. PLEASE DON'T GET LOST SEARCHING FOR MY ACCOUNT. GOMEN'NASAI***

**Here it is –**

* * *

His breathing was heavy, his eyes were droopy. The same red eyes Lucy had grown to love so much…

Rogue's shirt was torn apart. Lucy would've chosen this moment to ogle at him in a normal situation, but the blood seeping across his chest was all Lucy could think about right now. He looked sick – the already pale face was getting paler by the instant. Lucy could see the sadness in his eyes, she could see the pain.

Sting was still fighting that monster. He looked gaunt and pale – his magic energy was dangerously low. He wasn't going to last long.

Lucy turned her eyes back to the boy in her arms. He was coughing – hacky coughs, like an old witch's. Blood was seeping through his lips.

"Wendy?" Lucy screamed, not caring about anything else in this world. She wanted nothing more than to heal Rogue, to heal the boy she had sworn to love. Tears blurred her vision – it was like gazing at nothing. Everything was blurring together – Lucy knew she was starting to lose her grip. She needed to focus if she wanted to save Rogue.

"Wendy? Where are you?" she screamed, not knowing that the little girl was lying in a chamber somewhere far off, unable to go on. The tears were no longer contained in Lucy's eyes – she had long given up trying to hide them.

She had to try to save Rogue herself, but before that, she had to help Sting.

"NATSU!" Her voice was turning hoarse, but Lucy knew that her best friend would never ignore her plea for help. Completely reassured, she turned her attention back to the Shadow Dragon Slayer, only to find his eyes closed. She didn't like that – the movies had always told her to keep the eyes of the injured open (although she didn't know the reason behind it), and so she told Rogue to keep his eyes open.

The red was starting to show on the black of his jacket. It was sickening – Lucy had always hated the sight of blood. She had to stop this flow, or he was going to die. Soon, by the looks of that wound.

Wendy must be decapacitated somewhere, so Lucy went through her arsenal for a healing spell.

_Aquarius, Aquarius. _The water from Aquarius' Star Dress had healing properties. She could use it to heal Rogue. Only if the Spirit King hadn't taken her away.

"UGH!" Lucy wanted to be the one to sacrifice it. She had never wanted someone she loved to take the pain for her.

_What do I do? What do I do?_

She looked around for anything, anyone to save him. All she saw was three people fighting that bitch. Sting looked completely worn out – there was worry on his face, probably for Rogue. But he didn't give the battle up, trying to fight alongside Gray and Natsu. Sting had grown so much from the cocky jerk he used to be. His love for his friends rivaled that of any member of Fairy Tail.

"Please don't die, Rogue." Lucy was huddling closer to him, not knowing what to do. She was whispering words of comfort, not sure whether they were aimed at the boy or herself. Her tears were drying up due to Natsu's fire, caking to her cheeks and making them hard.

"Lucy..." Rogue's was little more than a gurgle, almost incomprehensible. Lucy could only imagine the pain of talking with blood in your throat. She wanted to stop him, but a part of her wanted to hear his voice one more time. It could be the last time she ever heard him speak.

"Stay quiet. Save your energy."

"Lucy…" he gasped again, ignoring her orders. "I… I… I love you… so much…"

Lucy felt her heart shattering into a million tiny little pieces. This wasn't the first time he was saying it, but this time it sounded like more of a farewell than a reassurance.

"I love you too, Rogue." Lucy tried to smile despite the thickness of her voice and the streaming of her tears. She knew it was hopeless, without Wendy, he couldn't be saved. So she would let him go with some comforting words in his head.

His breathing was getting shallower – Lucy called Sting to say his final goodbyes to his best friend. Looking at his face crumple at the sight of Rogue was enough to make her heart break again. Sting sank to his knees beside his partner.

Lucy left their side. Even though Rogue loved her, she had no business interrupting the sorrow of his best friend. Lucy had another thing in mind.

Revenge.

Her sorrow was turning slowly into anger at the sight of Rogue's blood covered being. Lucy knew who her enemy was this time, and she was going to kill him.

She gazed at the face of the person Natsu and Gray were fighting. His hair kind of reminded her of Rogue's.

Fury was spreading throughout her body unlike anything she'd ever experienced before.

Lucy was going to give this her all, even if the effort killed her.

She was going to make them pay.

"Star Dress, Final Form!"

* * *

**The end. It's still in the works, so excuse the not good parts. I'll probably make scene this longer. I just wanted to tease you, because I won't be releasing this till Second Origin is over. And that is going to be a long time. So I'll be posting little excerpts after every 5 chapters or so. BTW, I'm not telling you if Rogue will die. ;P**

**By the way, this story is going to be _dark. _Death and guts and gore. It's going to be M rated for sure. Very different from this one, mainly because the Tartarus arc is way darker.**

**Hope you have a good day, and don't forget to post your reviews. Also, suggest some amazing titles for the sequel, and please not lame ones like Second Origin. :/**


	9. Author's Note

**Okay, I hate author's notes too. I feel you. But I needed to ask you guys two things, because your opinions matter to me.**

**1) Should I turn this into M? I already have one story up as an M, but I want more. (Call me perv. I don't care.) I promise nothing too graphic, unless you want it. And think about a Laxus X Lucy X Rogue threesome ladies. Hot, eh?**

**2) I'm thinking about changing Lucy's battle in chapter - what was it? 4 I think - to Lucy vs. Laxus. Think about how I could use that in the story-line. And all that sexual tension...**

**And btw, Fairytail55-chan and Kuraheitir-chan I love you guys for reviewing so frequently! No hugs and kisses because I am generally not a touchy-feely person, but I appreciate it a lot. **

**AND THE REST OF MY FOLLOWERS TOO! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!  
****(No XOXO because the author is not a touchy-feely person)**

**Ja ne! I hope for your responses, in PM's or reviews! The majority wins! Let the games begin... **


	10. Chapter 7

**I'm back. I have no time to write, because my exams are going to start soon and I've been studying like crazy. So I won't be updating for at least a month. Sorry. *sigh* Don't even get me started on school. It reopens from vacations _tomorrow_ (I AM CRYING), and I have a shitload of homework _plus_ fucking tests literally a week after. Kill me now.  
I was planning to follow Fairy tail's story pretty closely in this one, but then I was like, "What the hell, make something up. Otherwise it's gonna be boring." So I'm gonna add new villains, most OC's. Yay.**

* * *

"The next battle! Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail A vs. Bacchus for Quatro Cerebrus!"

The pumpkin was certainly annoying, even Erza had to admit. His high pitched voice and weird-lil-kid demeanor were creepy, and that pumpkin head was even creepier. But he reminded her of a child, which reminded her of _having_ kids, which in turn reminded her of marriage, after which it went to Jellal and sex and the usual nonsense that was stored up in Erza's head.

She blushed.

Walking out into the stadium was terrifying – why had she been thinking about Jellal when there was an upcoming battle? Erza had to focus on the person standing in front of her.

Erza knew a lot about Bacchus – his power, his techniques, his strength. His palm magic was rather orthodox, compared to others, but his mastery of the Chop-Hanging Palm had rendered it to be extremely useful. Erza wasn't sure she could win this one.

The person in question was currently swinging about, looking drunk as fuck. Erza knew better than to be fooled by that. His pretending act was famous throughout Fiore. She just hoped she could finish him off before he took a swig or two.

"Yo, Erza. You ready?" He looked genuinely drunk; Bacchus could be an amazing actor if he wanted.

"As ready as I shall ever be Bacchus; you?"

"You're as uptight as ever, I see." He smirked.

"Whatever. At least I'm not a drunkard." Erza replied, trying out her mean side.

"Ooh, sassy. And sexy too. Let's make a bet." Bacchus licked his lips. _Gross. _

"No thank you."

"Scared?" Bacchus was swaying a bit now. The match had begun, so he was half in battle position and half not.

"Warriors don't make wagers. They-" Erza punctuated this by requipping into her Heaven's Wheel Armor, "- cut their enemy down!" She waved a hand, making about a dozen swords fly at him. He dodged out of their way, unsurprisingly, and came at her with amazing speed. She dodged most of his attacks, but caught the brunt of some palms.

It hurt.

Erza had to end this soon or it would end in their favour, which was not something Erza wanted. Lucy had defeated her enemy, so Erza had to do the same. She requipped into her Blackwing Armor, rushing towards Bacchus with that huge spiked sword, about to strike him down-

The earth below her shook violently. So violently, she stopped in her tracks, staring at the arena. She could vaguely hear Natsu's shout – "Get out of there!" – and Lucy rushing towards the field, towards Erza, when the ground shattered.

* * *

"ERZA!" Team Natsu screamed in unison, anguished, when they saw her stepping on the falling rocks to create a pathway. Lucy thought about her spells, trying to figure one out that could save Erza, when Gray created a path of ice, connecting the rock Erza was currently on to the edge of the arena.

Lucy couldn't remember when they had gotten up from their seats. She vaguely remembered Natsu nudging her side, saying "We need to get Erza outta there." She remembered getting up at that instant, sensing a heavy magic pressure. Looking around, she had seen distress on the faces of some of the participants. But nothing could have prepared her for this.

The ground had been completely shattered, like when she had broken it during her fight with Rufus. But this time, it had taken the edges of the arena with it, immersing almost half of the spectator seats into a deep dark pit that looked unending. People were screaming in fear, running as fast as they could towards the exit. Whoever had done this had no regard for human lives whatsoever.

Erza was standing with them. She was still in her Blackwing Armor, but the sword had either been lost in the rubble or sent back to her vault or whatever. At least she was safe.

"Who is that!?" The commentators were still here? Gutsy.

But a figure _was _rising out of the rubble. Lucy could make out a half-mask-thing on his forehead. It looked like the skeleton of a beak, but the face underneath was as handsome as could be. Perfect features. Lucy was surprised to see that there actually was someone with a face as symmetrical as this guy.

The person in question looked triumphant– on his face was something that looked like victory, while his hands were raised up in a dramatic speech pose, spread out as if to toss balloons to the children of the world.

"What do you want?" Jura was the first one to speak. Looking around, Lucy saw that only the participating guilds and the commentators were present.

"What I want? That depends." Mask-Guy said, smirking a little. His voice was deep, but Lucy hear a whirr under it, as if it was being powered by a generator. _Interesting._ She glanced at the Sabers – hey, it was clear enough that they were probably behind this. But their shocked faces said otherwise.

"Who are you?" It was Laxus who spoke this time. The initial surprise was wearing off, and so was the fear with it. Masky wouldn't try to do anything in an arena full of powerful mages.

He laughed again. Everything seemed to amuse this guy.

"Me? I'm Deliora."

* * *

Gray couldn't hear anything anymore. He just turned to Lyon, for some unknown reason. He saw his own expression mirrored there, horror with a tinge of fear and disgust. The hate was evident though.

_He's dead. You saw him die. This guy is just trying to scare you. _

Consolations weren't helping. Shock wasn't helping. Gray saw her die all over again.

"Excuse me?" Lucy spoke up. "You're _dead_."

Deliora laughed again. The demon Gray knew sure wasn't this amiable.

"Pretty thing, aren't you? Maybe I should take you back with me." He flashed a sickening grin, a flash of quicksilver against his tea-colored skin. Lucy looked disgusted.

"Stay the fuck away from her." Gray turned to the Fairy Tail B team, where Laxus suddenly looked very angry.

"Aha, a lover. You aren't much for someone who looks like her."

Laxus and Lucy both blushed and spluttered in unison. It was so out of character for the both of them that everyone was staring at them like 'wut.' But that blushing didn't take long to turn into anger, which Gray had actually been expecting.

"You didn't answer my question. You're supposed to be fucking _dead._ Falling like raindrops during a thunderstorm. Splat." Those sound effects weren't exactly doing anything to heal Gray's sudden nausea. Lucy, seemingly realizing this, looked back apologetically.

"And I clearly am not."

"Puh-lease. You were a fucking humongous fugly monster thingy, and now you're this hot-but-evil guy. Forgive me if I don't believe you."

"You have quite a tongue on you," Masky actually licked his lips. Disgusting. "I like that."

"Okay, you need to back the hell _off_." This time, it was that black-haired dragon slayer from Sabertooth who came to Lucy's defense. This was getting weirder and weirder.

"Lucy…?" Happy said, buried in her arms. , "You have a harem?"

At that, she blushed with all she had. "No, stupid cat! Just stop squirming and be still." Happy was scared enough to obey her, though Gray could see a small smirk on the Exceed's lips.

"Anyways," Deliora said, stretching out the a, "I _juuust_ wanted to say that the 13 Blades will be attacking you in _juuust_ five days. Be ready, k?" He winked at Lucy in particular, and disappeared. Literally. Poof.

There was a horrified silence, before Jura ordered them all to clear out of the stadium.

* * *

"This is bad." Lucy was packing her suitcase, as they were leaving for Magnolia tomorrow. The Grand Magic Games had been cancelled, and Natsu's dream of winning the number one spot had been crushed with it. "Very bad."

"No shit Lucy. If Deliora really is back-"

"He is _not. _He cannot be. I refuse to believe the lies of that _pervert_-" Lucy was still flushed, because it was embarrassing to 1) have a villain attracted to you and 2) be accused of having a harem in front of everyone you knew.

"What was the deal with Rogue and Laxus? They were practically going for the throat of the guy already." Erza said, with a sly glance at Lucy's increasingly red face. She just had to torture her, didn't she?

"Forget about that guys, who was that little piece of shit and what are the 13 Blades? I mean, are they people? Or literal blades?" Lucy tried to change the subject, and thankfully, it worked.

_Master's calling a meeting. Come to the bar. _

"Huh. Can someone please tell Warren not to do that so suddenly? I almost got a heart attack." Wendy said, folding up her clothes neatly and stuffing them into her suitcase. She got up, brushed off nonexistent dirt, and started walking out the door.

The rest of Team Natsu followed.

* * *

At the bar, members of Fairy Tail were already arranging themselves into a crowd. Lucy and Wendy pushed forward, trying to find gaps in the throng. They succeeded after a few tries, and found themselves facing Master, who was standing on a bar stool. He looked grim as fuck, as if a Dementor had swept into his heart.

"Great, everyone's here," he said as the rest of Team Natsu walked into the room, "We can start now."

Everyone looked at him grimly. Lucy could understand what they were feeling. No one had ever heard of these '13 Blades' and no one was even sure if they were in a guild or whatnot. But someone with this level of power – it was going to be a tough fight.

"It's Oracion Seis all over again. They want a team from Fairy Tail to join the wizards they're planning to get help from. A team of 5 will join them from Fairy Tail. You five will go to another hotel, where you'll be lodged with the teams from the other guilds."

"The members who'll be joining are these: Laxus," a choice met with "obviously"'s and "good"'s. He certainly was one of their strongest, so it did make sense.

"Erza." Another duh choice. "Mirajane." God, make it more obvious won't you, Master?

"Lucy," At that, her snapped up to stare at him. He smiled, but Lucy still expected some people to ask why. But to her surprise, everyone seemed to be okay with it. Her performance must have impressed them more than she thought.

"And finally, Gray." This one was met with many replies. People wanted Natsu or Gajeel to go, but Lucy knew why Master had chosen Gray. He didn't seem to know it though. Gray was staring at Master with wide eyes, clearly asking him why.

"Well, if that guy really _is_ Deliora, you'd want to get your revenge, no?"

And then everyone understood.

Lucy saw him try to hide it, but a tear slipped down Gray's cheek.

* * *

"Are you alright?" Gray heard Lucy ask him, and nodded slightly. He couldn't be seen as weak now. They weren't going to be just Fairy Tail now. Others weren't going to be as compassionate as his guild.

But yet she moved away, to give some more space, and for that, he was thankful.

Gramps had just given him a new pair of SoundPods. The same model, spiky ones. How Laxus had missed them.

He felt Lucy sidle up next to him. They were on a carriage to the other hotel, which apparently on the edge of town. So there wasn't exactly a lot of space, but there was no need to press up against someone else as she just had.

Laxus saw her lips move, but no noise came out of them. She gestured to his ear, making a 'take it off' motion. He took his SoundPods off, asking why.

"Gimme one."

He stared at her as if she had just said 'I need my favorite book character to die.'

"Give. One. To. Me. I'm bored." She held out one hand. He gave her one.

No one had talked to him like this ever since that Battle of Fairy Tail thing. (Except the Rajinshuu, but they weren't counted. Those idiots worshiped him.) It was a nice change.

She put it on, and rested her head on the wall of the carriage. Her eyes went up to the sky, where no roof blocked the view. The inky sky was full of stars, making an amazing tapestry. Laxus was supposed to say something now, he knew. So he said the most cliché thing he could.

"The stars look amazing."

Lucy smiled, but a tear dropped down her cheek. "Yes, they do."

Laxus panicked. _What did I do? Did I say something weird? _

"You didn't do anything, Laxus." Lucy said, looking at him with a half-laugh, "The stars just remind me of Mama."

Everyone in the guild knew about Lucy's life, so naturally Laxus too knew that her mom was dead. And as his mom was dead too, he could sympathize with her.

So he put a hand around her shoulders, pulling her in. Laxus felt her stiffen for a second, before she relaxed into the embrace, curling around his side. She was warm, and her boobs were kinda pressing up against him. He didn't know how she could be comfortable curled up around a rock like him, but she looked content. He smiled.

Mira masked her fangirl squeal with a cough. (She shipped NaLu, but LaLu would be sexy af.) Erza patted her back, smiling.

* * *

Back at the hotel, the rest of Team A and B were making plans.

Plans involving staying in Crocus.

And fighting with their nakama.

Because they were Fairy Tail, after all. None of them went into battle alone.

* * *

**How was it? These people are basically like the 9 Gates of Tartarus and shit. Awesome huh? (I actually forgot what happened in GMG arc. Don't blame me. I read it, like, a thousand years ago.)Anyways, these guys will be strong af, and the fights will make you actually scream in happiness. Even if I do say so myself.  
I don't want to go back to school. I have studied nothing AT. ALL. Talk about useless, huh. And French is difficult. History is too. Don't even get me started on Math.  
****Anyways, review please. Sorry for taking so much time to update, and sorry in advance for the next late update. I can't even open my mail right now, but I was in the mood to write so I did it.**

**REVIEW PLEASE. ARIGATOU.**


	11. Chapter 8

**Hi there. You must be wondering what I'm doing back here when I was supposed to be studying. Well, tomorrow is my English exam. So I guess this counts as a part of it, doesn't it? Also, I could do that in my sleep, our school's English paper is just so easy.  
Anyways, you must be happy. And I am too. Although I didn't really make anyone fight in this chapter. I was in a light and fluffy mood so I write some light and fluffy things.  
Also, sure, I can give you GrayLu. I hope you like this. My GrayLu feels suddenly reignited during this arc. Maybe I'll add GrayLu to this. Idk. Maybe.  
I love you three. You guys are THE BEST. If you keep reviewing, the lack of reviews won't discourage me as much.  
Hope you like it. **

* * *

"Hello."

Lucy nearly jumped out of her skin.

There she was trying to get some juice for the Fairy Tail team, when all of a sudden a (very familiar) voice startled her out of her wits. She turned around slowly, chanting _No, no, no, please oh holy infinite universe, no please, oh sweet baby Jesus no _(in her head, obviously,) on repeat, like Juvia chanted Gray's name like a mantra.

God was feeling unhelpful. There stood Rogue in all his clothed glory, looking at her with embarrassment and shame etched on his face.

"H-hi." Lucy stuttered, immediately regretting it. _Lucy Heartfilia. You are a strong independent woman who don't need no man. _

"How are you?" Ew, small talk. Lucy hated small talk.

"Fine. You?" Lucy couldn't believe it. She was reciprocating small talk. After they had kissed on the wall of the hotel. Wtf, this was like, impossible.

Maybe Rogue wanted to forget about it. Maybe she wasn't a good kisser, or maybe because she was Fairy Tail and it was Sabertooth's job to hate them. Maybe –

_Lucy Heartfilia. You are a strong independent woman who don't doubt herself for no man. _

"Uh… could you move? You're kind of blocking the juice machine, so…?"

Lucy blushed fiercely, muttering a "Sure." Before moving out of the way like a cat running from a dog. She moved towards the Fairies' room, only to be stopped by a scream.

"FRO CAN SEE THE NICE GIRL ROGUE LIKES!"

Lucy snapped her head back in their direction so fast that it creaked, just in time to see the sharp coating of red on Rogue's cheeks.

And as sad as she was to admit it, all that was in her head was _YES YES YES YES. _

She turned back around, walking with a saunter now. Lucy started whistling, making tunes out of her Mom's old songs and Lyra's sweet tunes.

Until something.

"Do you regret it?"

What the literal fuck. This guy should be fucking spy.

Lucy turned back (again.) to face Rogue (again). She looked into his red eyes, the shape of a snake's. He was blushy all over, even on his neck. It was so cute.

So she said, "No."

And walked off.

But not before she could hear a soft, "Good." either.

Lucy's grin was practically permanent the rest of the night.

* * *

Natsu grinned.

His plan was working. And that was saying something, since he usually never HAD to come up with a plan. After all, Lucy had always been by his side.

She still was, by the way.

They stood in the broom closet of the hotel , along with the rest of the Fairy Tail team. Juvia was actually crying, clinging to Gray's arm. _Revolting. Why would she like that ice bastard? _Laxus stood indifferent in a corner, and Mirajane was doing something like teasing him. Gajeel and Levy were the usual (even Natsu could see what was between them. Seriously. Get together already.) Everyone else was their usual self.

"You booked a room?" Lucy asked him, with a strange smile on her face. Natsu was pleased to see that she was so happy to see them following the rest.

"Three rooms, actually. We won't fit."

Lucy looked at him with a wider grin, and then reached out to ruffle his hair. "My Natsu is growing up." Natsu laughed, a little embarrassed, but enjoying it the same.

"Well, we'll see you when? Tomorrow?" she asked, the grin receding. It was still there though.

"Yeah, I guess." Natsu replied, looking at her, "Just don't fight anything without me."

Lucy laughed, lowering her hand from his head. "Of course, Natsu. What are best friends for?"

* * *

Lucy was showering, whistling the same tunes when she heard two giggles. _Weird. _Erza wast a giggly girl, even though Mira was. Maybe Lisanna had come over?

When Lucy walked out of the shower, she felt something clip onto her back. And then, her towel fell off, exposing the entirety of her body to the entire room. Including ALL of its inhabitants. Including Gray and Laxus – no wait. Laxus wasn't there. Weird.

Gray's eyes went wide as soon as it fell off. He had said that Lucy's naked body had long lost its welcome, but his face proved him wrong. Naked female bodies were a surprisingly good lie detector with guys.

And then Lucy realized her position. And screeched like a banshee. She turned around, looking for her towel, only to find… nothing. _Oh, Mira, you're SO dead. _

Covering her boobs with her arms, she glared at Mira and Erza, who were snickering in the corner of the room. They stuck their tongues out at her, and pushed Gray forward.

_OH GOD MIRA CONVERTED ERZA. _was Lucy's last thought before Gray's head landed squarely on her crossed arms. Which then (obviously) uncrossed to create a pillow for Gray's head. Lucy screamed shrilly again, only to have it kept down by Gray's hands. He raised his head from her bosom, red as a cherry, and told her, "What would this look like to stranger? If they hear you screaming?"

Lucy had to acknowledge that. Gray took his hands off her mouth after she gestured that she wouldn't scream.

She felt Gray slowly getting off. Only for Laxus to walk back in, saying, "Look who I met during breakfast. He says he knows Lu-" With that, he noticed Gray and Lucy in the… _compromising_ position, and immediately fumed back out. Mira and Erza were just flat-out laughing now, not even bothering to hide it. _Fucking traitors. _

The person Laxus had 'met' walked in, confused as to why his host had just walked off. The sight awaiting him was not something he ever wanted to see.

A half-naked Gray Fullbuster was on all four on top of a very sexy and a very naked Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy looked embarrassed, and Gray had a rosy color on his cheeks. But Rogue could see the slight smile on Fullbuster's face.

And then he followed Laxus out.

* * *

"I cannot believe you did that. It was so embarrassing." Lucy said, berating a smirking Mira and Erza. Sure, Erza had felt a little bad for the four of them, but it was _so _worth it. Their expressions…

"You wait Erza Scarlet. I am going to push you on top of a naked Jellal. That is a promise." Lucy half-smirked, which seemed difficult to do with the shaky mouth. She needed to know when a threat would be effective, and after an immediate embarrassment, threats were nothing but empty.

Team Fairy Tail was walking to the conference room of the hotel, where the King was going to fill them in about the 13 Blades. Laxus had already gone on ahead, and Lucy was walking with Gray, though Erza didn't know why. He'd just had his face in her boobs, hadn't he? Maybe she liked him…

Anyways, she was shouting at Mira and Erza, who were walking behind the pair, with a shaking finger and all. Gray was just walking, looking at the ground with a little smile on his face. _I knew it, He so enjoyed this. _

Reaching the room, Lucy pushed open doors, only to show all the other guilds already assembled in the hall. A long, highly polished table ran the length of the room, with black leather chairs flanking it on every side. A hologram lacrima sat in the middle of the desk, inactivated as of yet. Laxus was the only one sitting in the corner marked 'Fairy Tail', and he was currently very engaged in glaring at Gray and Lucy.

"You are late." snapped a harsh looking secretary. She wore glasses, had big boobs, and black hair piled up into a bun. Everything about her screamed "I AM A SECRETARY." "We were about to start without you."

"Well, we're here, aren't we? Now please start." Lucy snapped annoyed with everything that was happening to her. She, followed by the rest of the team, stalked up to the Fairy Tail part of the table and sat on the leftover four chairs.

Erza was very aware of the rest of the guilds staring at them. But she could not help but notice that the Blue Pegasus guys were missing.

"Where is Blue Pegasus?"

"We sent them on a scouting mission aboard the Christina," the King said. He was a tiny little thing, flanked on one side by his lovely daughter Hisui and on the other by the stereotypical secretary. But his voice was surprisingly deep and must be good for giving speeches. "We know the general location of the headquarters of the 13 Blades. They're in the Southsea Woods, but their exact location is yet to be determined. The Blue Pegasus team volunteered to scout."

"Okay, so, shall we start now?" Hisui said, looking at the faces of the assembled guilds, who replied in the positive. "Ok. So," she pressed a button on the hologram lacrima, and the figure of 'Deliora' popped up. "This man is apparently the dead demon Deliora. Fairy Tail must know when and how Deliora died, and we are currently investigating into this resurrection matter. However, the body he is using is mechanical."

"Mechanical. Like an automaton." Lucy said.

"Exactly like an automaton." Miss Secretary was talking this time, "We analyzed the placing of the bone structure according to the shape of the body, and some of the structures fell flat. Also, I don't know if any of you noticed, but his palms were silver. It only proves the automaton theory."

The secretary swiped her hand across the hologram, bringing out an image of 13 people instead. But they were blacked, and only the outlines could be made out. "This image is all our Archives have on '13 Blades'. And we believe that this information was planted here directly by them."

A collective gasp issued throughout the room.

"Oh yes. We have a spy. And trust me, I intend to-"

And then a loud noise overcame their senses, and the room exploded in a shower of sparks and fire.

* * *

The rubble was covering Gray from head to toe. His head was throbbing like crazy; his body felt like lead. There was someone under him, and he saw that Lucy was buried under him, staring at him like he was crazy. He then remembered moving his body to protect hers.

_Is that Natsu? Will he save Lucy? What about the others? _Gray could swear that he saw a fire through a hole in the debris. But he couldn't tell. Everything was merging together like a smudged painting. His eyelids were falling, unable to cope. He felt a hand on his forehead, though he knew it was not his.

Gray passed out.

* * *

Good thing that Natsu had been listening in on the meeting. Otherwise, the scene would just have looked like an ordinary disaster.

When the door flew off its hinges, Natsu flew back into the corridor with it. The impact hurt his skull, but not as much as it must've hurt the people inside. Shrugging it off, he pushed the door off and moved into the room. Or what used to be the room.

Debris was spread out as far as eye could see. Natsu could see a few legs, and hand sticking out here and there. Sting from the Sabers was rising up currently. He seemed to be the only person in the room who was in the condition to move. When his eyes honed in on Natsu, his face showed nothing but grim dismay.

"You weren't in team, were you?"

"Nope."

"Figures."

Sting didn't seem to be too surprised by the fact that Natsu that broken the rules and blown his cover. He looked around as Natsu had, when suddenly a figure appeared in front of them.

It was a ball. Literally. It was a ball within another half ball. Colored silver, with flashing red eyes and a menacing look, it's robotic movement indicated only one thing. It was one of them.

But that wasn't it. No, it was carrying all of the Blue Pegasus members in a stack on its head. He dumped them on the ground, and turned to the two Dragon Slayers, seemingly analyzing their positions. It spread out long metallic hands that weren't there a minute ago, and pointed one at each of them.

And then he blasted again, tearing apart the rubble.

Natsu and Sting managed to bear the brunt, since explosion were both fire and light, but this explosion was nothing oridinary. It was extremely powerful, and Natsu knew that he wouldn't survive a few more.

Well, then. He would just have to defeat the thing in that limited amount of time.

"I'm all fired up now!"

* * *

Sting gazed at Natsu with what he was sure was a look of admiration. Natsu looked utterly happy, and carefree, and confident. Sting had never seen someone look like this.

"I'll fight with you, Natsu-san!" Sting said, suddenly desperate. Rogue and Lector and Frosch were in danger, and if they lost, it was game over.

_I'll fight, he says. _A mocking voice appeared somewhere in his consciousness, and he looked around for the source, scared. But Sting could see that Natsu heard the voice as well, but he was just smirking. "The thing speaks." Natsu whispered in Sting's direction, and he suddenly realized the source of the voice.

Sting looked at the debris which covered Fiore's strongest mages, and felt a strong sense of friendship come over him. He looked at the Blue Pegasus guys, who were battered and bloody, and Sting silently swore to avenge them.

When had he changed so much? Ever since Fairy Tail came back? Or just now?

Sting didn't think about it. He charged the enemy, with Natsu at his side.

* * *

In the guild hall in Fiore, Master Makarov was berating the guild members for letting the Team Members escape, not knowing that the members had had help escaping. No one in Fairy Tail wanted their nakama to be injured, and so the strongest members had been helped by every member in the guild. They had lied to Master during the headcount, and Master had been made to sit in a different carriage. They just hoped that he wouldn't find out. Or they were literally dead.

* * *

**So it's over. Next time, get ready for a Sting and Natsu Unison Raid. Maybe I'll give it to you. Just maybe. Maybe not, you know.  
Anyways, I have to go study real English now, so Ja Ne! And don't forget to review! 3 reviews the last time really disappointed me. At least 6 or no next chapter for you guys. And I am _serious._ A thousand people can read it, and literally TEN cannot review? I am asking for one percent here guys. Is this story not worth it? Reviews mean encouragement, and this discourages me. _  
_REVIEW PLEASE. ARIGATOU. **


	12. Chapter 9

**I'm back. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Anyways, I had my exams and the only good result was my English one. Literally all of my papers sucked.  
So I'm really sorry, but I'll not be updating my stories quite so often now. But I swear to god, I will always give you long chapters. At least 5k words each. Pinky promise. **  
**Anywho, my parents blew up at me for my grades, and I literally need some comfort. ALSO, more people need to PM me. My inbox is almost empty, and I need more friends on this site. You may call me Seth in the messages or reviews, and I will also need someone to teach me French. I'm sorry for asking all of this, but my parents won't get me a tutor because I'm supposed to be "smart". And I really need someone to tell expressions and shit in French, because that fuckery actually eats my brains. I'm kind of helpless here, and I promise that I will be ending this story no matter what within two-three years. And it will be long.**  
**Again, sorry. Also, this chapter is a little dramatic. I'm experimenting with different voices, so my chapters my go from light to dark at once. I hope that is okay with all of you. **

* * *

Lucy regained consciousness five minutes after Gray had fallen on top of her, accidentally bonking her head. Hard. She'd tried to hold a hand to his forehead to stop him from falling, but he was too heavy. So they'd both fallen unconscious in the worst position ever. He was quite literally crushing her, _but_ at least her boobs came in handy this time.

She looked around, trying to gouge her surroundings. She had quite possibly suffered from a concussion, but Gray was worse. Lucy tried to run her hands down his back to see how much damage had been done, but he was actually covered in debris. His head was on her shoulder, and he was still out cold.

Tears pricked her eyes. _I will not cry. Not when he did this to save me._

"Star Dress, Taurus." Lucy muttered, and suddenly felt a great power rushing into her. This was her first time trying on this dress, so she had to be careful to control her strength as to not blow someone to pieces.

Lucy blinked in the darkness. Once, twice. And then she pushed her way out of the rubble.

* * *

**15 minutes earlier. **

"White Drive."

Natsu looked on as Sting's body was suddenly coated in white light, and Natsu thought that the guy looked strangely attractive at that moment, his mouth curled into a snarl and a look in his eyes that could kill.

Sting whirled forward with a blinding speed, but the metalloid could see all of his movements. Natsu ached to join Sting, but he knew that he had to be analytical about this one. He had to be Lucy and look out for the guy's weaknesses while Sting attacked him. Natsu was stronger than Sting; that much was evident. But light and fire put _together_ could probably defeat this enemy even if a single one of them could not.

Natsu pushed off the ground, hurling himself at the enemy just as Sting did so; he punched the metal with a fist slathered with his strongest flames along with Sting's Wing Attack. The body ignited in a blast the size of a truck. Flames licked his sides, but Natsu stood there, since flames had long since stopped affecting him. Sting stood beside him, carefully avoiding the small fires that ignited the ground.

Natsu looked for any signs of the enemy, but all his eyes did was dart over the smoke that filled the crater. As it cleared, Natsu saw the automaton just standing there, without any kind of bruise on its surface. _Well, it's one tough dude. Or thing. Or whatever. _

The automaton just stood there in grim silence as if it were mocking the pair of Dragon Slayers. Natsu looked at it with plain distaste, but the automaton did not seem to be affected at all by his death glare. **(A/N: i.e. his glowing eyes that appear when he defeats an enemy lol) **Its eyes were slits of green, with sclera the color of oil, and they stared at the pair as if calculating their power.

Natsu felt anger rush through him; rage at his friends being crushed, at himself for not being there for protecting them. He used it; used that pent up rage to fuel his next attack on the metalloid. He pushed off the ground, hard, and slashed at the metal with all the flames he could muster.

The world turned red and gold, and flames licked every inch of his body as Natsu poured all of his magic into his attacks. He bellowed at Sting to back off, and heard a faint "Natsu-san!" Reassured, Natsu continued his assault on the creature as he felt metal under his fingertips. _Burn. Burn. Burn. Melt. Melt. Melt. _As Natsu started to feel the drain in his magic, he tried to stop his magic but he couldn't, _he couldn't control it…._

Natsu felt his consciousness slip out from under him. He was losing focus; the flames were going astray at a rate that would surely kill him not after long. The world was growing blurry, reds and golds and yellows in one, and the skin on his arms felt scaly instead of fleshy. He looked down to see scales, wicked black and blood reds, patches of skin still visible under it all. But it was all blurring together, and Natsu was no longer sure whether he was dead or alive, whether he was conscious or…

A moment later Natsu felt a strong hand grip his bicep, and looked up to see a white figure, glowing with the righteous light of justice. _An angel? _The figure moved to pick Natsu up, his body hanging lifelessly in its arms. He couldn't see straight any longer, and as his vision slowly started turning black, Natsu could swear he heard a soft "Natsu-san" in there somewhere.

* * *

Juvia was ashamed. Ashamed of herself and of her guildmates. Everyone from the guilds was literally under rubble, and they had just come to know.

When they reached the site of the explosion, it was full of fire. Flames that seemed to reach the entirety of the sky, it was both beautiful and terrifying. Juvia doused it with water, pouring all of her strength into it, but all of it just evaporated in an instant. She didn't know who it was who had done this, but this was on an entire other level.

Fuck all of that, she needed to find Gray. Was he hurt? How bad?

Gajeel and the others were already pushing rubble out of the way when Juvia saw the Sabertooth guy, who was cradling Natsu's body. His body was coated in a white light, and his light blond hair looked like a halo. His hands gripped Natsu's body tightly, and even to this distance, Juvia could hear the sizzle of burning flesh…

Lisanna screamed and rushed to his side in a matter of seconds; but the white guy still refused to let him go. Juvia could see the burns travel up his skin, almost up to his elbow now. Lisanna was crying, when she stretched out her hand to cradle Natsu's face. She drew it back with a snap – the tips of her fingers already blistering. Juvia screamed for Wendy to come over, and she did, pushing all of them back. She first stared at Natsu in horror, at his pale skin and closed eyes, and then at Sting, with a mixture of fear, respect and care in her eyes.

"Put him down, Sting." Wendy said, placing a hand gently over his arm. He shook his head violently, his expression one of awe and fear. "Put him down. It'll be okay. I'm here, see? I'll heal him."

Lisanna was trembling, her hand shaking around the edges of Natsu's face. She didn't touch him, no, but her eyes were so sad.

_Where was Gray?_ His best friend was on the verge of death here, and _where was he?_

Juvia left Natsu's side after a quick glance at Wendy, who had finally coaxed Sting to put Natsu down. The Dragon Slayer just laid there, his pale skin almost the color of white snow. Lisanna was crying freely, and Sting's lip was trembling hard, his expression one of fear.

She started calling out for Gray first, his voice mixing with Levy's shout of "Lu-chan!" and Elfman's call for Laxus. Nearly everyone was here – how had Master missed their disappearance?

The fire still burned, but it was gradually decreasing in size, while its energy still remained the same. Juvia knew now that Natsu had done this; but how? She hadn't known him to be so strong.

At her right, a rock shot up into the sky.

* * *

Would you look at that? The rock just shot up like a rocket, and Lucy didn't even feel a burn in her muscles. This was literally so useful.

Lucy slung Gray over her shoulder, and climbed out of the hollow with the grace of a duckling. She stumbled over a rock first, and then landed splat on her face on a flat rock that crushed her nose. Her eyes stung and her nose hurt, but she persisted and picked Gray up, who had fallen with her. Lucy had barely moved one step when she was tackled by Juvia, who was crying freely and was on the verge of flooding the entire country, by the looks of it.

"Oh my god, Juvia, chill out. He's okay. Just passed out." Lucy said, looking at the water mage with exhasperation. She expected a full on 'Love Rival' act coming on, but instead Juvia just said one thing.

"Natsu is hurt."

Lucy's heart sped up, and before she knew it she moved to search for Natsu. She ignored Lucy's "Lu-chan!" as she searched for Natsu. Oh my god, was he dead? Was he on the verge of dying? Oh my god, oh my god. Lucy was on the verge of hyperventilation, heart beating wildly in her chest.

She heard Lisanna call out for her, vaguely registered the thickness in Lisanna's voice, how it cracked in the middle of her name…

Lucy ran to the side of her best friend, tears slipping out of the corners of her eyes. His face was visible now; oh-so white and deathly pale. His lips were cracked, and his arms, _his arms. _They were covered in scars, remnants of something much more than just scars, but why…

"Lucy, get into your Aquarius dress. I'll be needing your help." Wendy was in her healer mode, calm and collected. But her lower lip was trembling, her wide eyes helpless. Lucy nodded once, and switched over to her Aquarius Star Dress. She felt the strength go out of her, replaced by a force so powerful, like a waterfall.

"Heal him. I'll take care of Natsu." Wendy said, hands glowing green over Natsu's limp body. She jerked her head to the blond man who sat in Lucy's peripheral vision. Part two of the Dragon Slayer duo, Mr. Cocky. His arms were scorched from elbows down, red blisters mixing with the milky skin. Sting shook his head, gesturing towards Natsu.

"Do him first. I'm fine." Why was everyone shaking? Wendy, the youngest person in their group, was literally the only one acting collected. But Lucy still put a Water Barrier around Sting. She didn't trust him, but she could know what had happened later. Also, you don't defy Wendy when she's in doctor mode.

Wendy moved fast. Her expression was one of focus, her magic changing from blues to greens to whites in seconds. Her hands moved like wind, going from one part of Natsu's body to another. Lucy's tears still flowed, but they were stopping now. Wendy could save Natsu. She could save Natsu for sure.

After another 30 minutes of Wendy's healing and Sting's protesting, Natsu's breathing evened out. Lucy sighed in relief, and felt her magic drain as she put more power into the Barrier. Sting still wasn't completely healed – the Star Dress's healing capacity was nowhere near Wendy, but it was almost healed. The burns would just leave scars on Sting's wrists, but he looked like he wouldn't mind.

Lucy bent to kiss Natsu's cheek and touched her lips to his skin lightly. She hadn't touched him before this, and Lucy felt heat on her lips and they brushed Natsu's cheek. Then she left him to Wendy's care and moved to take in the situation.

Lucy climbed the largest rock she could find as she stopped her Star Dress. Standing on the tip of the rock, she looked out to see what looked like a mile of rubble. Half of the hotel had been leveled, along with its surrounding cafes. There was still a fire in the middle of the rubble about which Sting refused to talk until "Natsu-san wakes up." Lucy supposed that Natsu could support the story well, since he was most probably the one who had done this, but to this extent…

The rescues were going pretty well. The busty secretary was dead, along with a couple of the guild members. Every Fairy was alright, but Gray was injured heavily. Lucy watched Juvia apply a salve onto his back as he groaned. Juvia immediately fussed, asking him whether he felt fine, or if she should stop. Gray just smiled and told her continue.

It made Lucy smile.

But it wasn't a long lasting one. There had been incalculable casualties, and so many of the rocks in Lucy's vision were stained red with blood.

They had made the first move.

It was now time to retaliate.

* * *

**Well, that is it. It's small, but I can actually manage just this rn. Next month, wait for a 5k chapter. I'll probably update every month, but I can't say anything about my other stories. So, wish me luck, and sorry again, but if any of my readers is French, PLEASE MESSAGE ME. Thank you. **

_**And don't forget to review. **_


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